Cheesy lessons

In France, where they make over 500 different cheeses, and a good Brie is as easy to find as a baguette, Epoisses is rather rare and expensive. But in the United States it is more than rare. It is unavailable. It is unavailable because it is as illegal as Cuban cigars.

You see, this unassuming little round orange bundle, which weights about nine ounces and has something of a barnyard aroma to it, is made from unpasteurized milk. And in the good ol’ US of A, raw-milk cheeses are absolutely, positively forbidden unless they have been aged for at least 60 days, which would sort of be like saying you couldn’t sell fresh fish in a grocery store until it had been aged for at least two months.

There is a good reason for this decree from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Bacteria that can cause diseases can be transmitted in raw milk. Nearly a century and a half ago, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur figured out a process to eliminate bacteria in wine by heating it. Later the process was applied to milk and came to be called, as every schoolkid knows, “pasteurization.” Before Pasteur’s process was applied, all cheese was made from raw milk. In France today only about half still is. But modern pasteurization, in which the milk is heated to 161° for 15 seconds, can give milk a “cooked” flavor. And the whole point of having fresh, raw-milk cheese, like Epoisses de Bourgogne, is so you taste the distinctive flavors that come from ripened, soft cheeses that have not had their rather pronounced (substitute smelly here if you want) aromas “cooked” away by pasteurization.

But this is a no-no in the States.

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