If you are like most people I know, you probably have a hard time distinguishing between Brie and Camembert. And why shouldn’t you? They do look and taste about the same. Of course, the easiest way to tell the difference between the two would be to look at the packaging, but hopefully by the end of this post you will have some facts to help you distinguish between Brie and Camembert.
The reason why most people confuse Brie and Camembert is that Brie is just so much better known—and it probably doesn’t help that it’s one syllable and easier to pronounce than Camembert.
Recipe
The recipes are basically the same, except Brie typically has a higher fat content. There are also triple-crème Bries, which have at least 75% fat in the dry matter (the cheese with its water taken out), which makes them extremely rich and creamy.
Appearance
Both cheeses are relatively similar in that they are bloomy-rind cheeses with creamy centers. The main difference in appearance between Brie and Camembert is in size. Brie wheels are much larger: Brie de Meaux is about 36 cm (14½ inches) across and Brie de Melun 27 to 28 cm (about 11 inches). Camembert de Normandie, on the other hand, is only 10.5 to 11 cm (about 4¼ inches) across. In grocery stores you might find small wheels of Brie, called Baby Brie, but that isn’t the traditional size.
Packaging
Typically in the grocery store or cheese shop, you’ll buy a Brie in wedges or half wheels. It’s not very common to buy a full wheel of Brie in either of those places. Because baked Brie is so popular, wedges and Baby Bries are sometimes sold in a wooden box too. Camembert, on the other hand, is usually sold whole, and typically (though not always) in its own wooden box.
Not so obvious
Some Brie and Camembert have a protected origin designation. Two Bries are protected: Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun, which are made from raw milk in the Brie region east of Paris. Camembert has one too, called Camembert de Normandie, which must be made in Normandy, also from raw milk. In French, this is called Appellation d’Origine Protégée (AOP, formerly AOC). The plain words “Brie” and “Camembert” are not protected, though, so you will find them made in many other places, and cheeses made outside the protected areas are often labeled Brie-style or Camembert-style.
Wrapping up
So, in summary here are the differences between Brie and Camembert:
- Recipe is about the same, except Brie may contain more fat.
- Brie is traditionally much larger than Camembert.
- Brie is typically sold in wedges or half wheels.
- Camembert is usually sold whole, in small wheels about 4¼ inches (11 cm) across.
- Brie is from Île-de-France, east of Paris; Camembert is from Normandy.
Now that you know the difference, you can really impress your friends and family at your next gathering when you declare that the cheese wheel you’re eating is, in fact, a Camembert and not a Brie.
What’s your favorite Camembert or Brie recipe? Let me know in the comments.
As a french, if they are different cheeze the taste is slightly different… Between the brie and camembert. It’s also the process and the firm that are producing the cheeze, and not only the receipe.
I feel it when the cheeze is becoming old… Difficult to talk about it.
For the brie : you have 2 sorts : the brie of Meaux (the most commun, or know) and the brie of Melun (really strong, maybe not very famous). But i prefer the second.
For the camembert, it so famous that you have a range of cheeze that make difficult to find a good cheeze.
good point about the manufacturers! also, taste is very hard to measure~ france is famous for having so many varieties of cheese; it doesn’t surprise me that there are so many camemberts.
The size of the wheel is actually really important as it impacts the flavour of the cheese. The lower the cheese-to-rind ratio the stronger cheese. Because Camembert has more rind-to-cheese than the larger-wheeled Brie it has a much stronger taste.
Well, the ferments in the brie and the camemberts are different. They are stronger in the camembert which has for consequence a stronger flavor as it ages.
Also, you have different types of Brie. You are here talking about lactic Brie and indeed the production process is close to the AOP brie. However, other Brie are half lactic half stabilized, or stabilized. Which means they will not ages like a camembert and they will ripene equaly.
Not forget to mention that traditional AOP camembert is ladle-formed in 5 times, whereas for brie the fermented milk is moulded in once.
So, still plenty of differences
🙂
Why does anyone have trouble tasting between the two? Brie is creamier and Camembert has a more “ammonia” type taste, a little stronger than Brie.
This is the third explanation I read on the subject, but I still didn’t find the part I’m looking for.bThe cheese I just had was goat cheese, semi soft with an earthy type rind on the outside, creamy right underneath the rind, and a totally different texture towards the middle of the cheese; more dry and crumbly. I always thought that was the distinction between the two, making it a camembert. But I’m having brainfarts lately and may have gotten my facts confused. What do you think? ?