Claudia Romeo: We're in Seine-et-Marne, in France,
in the birthplace of Brie.
And, actually, we're not far from Paris.
We're at, like, 12 kilometers from Disneyland Paris,
but here it's another type of theme park.
We are at the Ferme des 30 Arpents,
which is one of the seven farms making Brie de Meaux,
and the only one that makes it fermier,
which means from the farm,
which means that the cows are milked here
and the cheese is just made 100 meters from here.
Claudia: The farm has 250 cows in total.
After milk is collected,
it is stored in these vats for 18 hours
and some part of its cream is taken out
while some natural ferments are added.
These include penicillium and Geotrichum,
which make up Brie de Meaux's signature texture and flavor.
But more on that later.
One day after being collected,
milk is moved to another room,
where it will be split into curds.
This is done thanks to the addition of rennet,
which takes about one hour to solidify the milk.
Claudia: In this other room,
it was so hot that our camera steamed up
and we had to wait a bit to resume filming.
Claudia: The mold is made of three layers,
which are removed gradually as the cheese loses its liquid.
From 25 liters of liquid,
it's going to get smaller and smaller up until 5 liters.
This is going to take three hours.
And at the end of the whole making process,
the weight of the cheese is going to be 3 kilos.
Claudia: On their first day,
cheeses in molds are turned three times
with the help of a steel plate
to make sure they hold their shape.
They are then piled up on top of each other.
Claudia: Oh, wow.
The cheeses stay in the molds for 24 hours
to make sure they drain all their liquid.
In total, the farm will make about
300 wheels of Brie de Meaux,
ladled from 100 basins.
The day after,
the cheeses are removed from molds and salted.
Claudia: Oh, wow.
I have some salt crystals.
No, it doesn't smell like anything.
It's much more pleasant.
Claudia: Wow, yeah, it smells very differently.
It's strong. It's tangy.
Didier: Yeah. We can smell nuts and apples.
Claudia: It's true, it smells like apples.
Cheese wheels are then moved to another room,
where they stay for five to seven days,
within which they're going
to be turned three times to avoid collapsing.
Here, they start to get whiter,
and it's where we start to see the first effects
of the ferments added to the milk at the beginning.
Here, 8 degrees.
Claudia: Cold. [laughs]
It is cold.
This is the last room of the maturation process.
And it is another cold one!
Claudia: Oh, I'm dead. It's 6 degrees in this room.
So cold.
Claudia: Can I touch?
Claudia: You can feel the hard crust outside, the rind,
and then inside you can feel
that it's very, very, very soft.
Claudia: Oh, OK wow.
[cows mooing]
Claudia: So creamy.
So creamy and buttery.
Claudia: But actually, it's very sweet.
I would say probably sweeter than
how it would have been
if it had been only four weeks old.