Brie and Camembert... can you recognize them? The same... or different?

Cheeses, cheeses, cheeses... there are so many different varieties of this dairy product with so different qualities.
Belgian cheeses, Bulgarian cheeses, French cheeses... every one of them with a different taste! But still there are some types that share almost same appearance and taste.

Today the stars of my post are the Brie and the Camembert! Everyone have seen them, but can you recognize them?

Even some of the best hobbie chefs sometimes find it difficult to make the difference between these two cousins, but if you have a passion in cooking, you have to make the difference! I myself had eaten Brie and Camembert couple of times, but learned how to differentiate them just in the past few weeks.

Let’s begin with the similarities...
The first one to come is of course, that both the cheeses come from France, secondly... the both cheeses are made from cow milk (please don’t mistake them with the with the French goat cheese).
It only they have the same origin and base ingredient, but their appearance is the same... creamy and soft all throughout the inner volume and a white, sometimes moldy blue outer surface. They even have a similar taste but...

The differences. The main difference is the addition of cream in the Brie cheese, which makes its taste and mouth fill somewhat more fatty and creamy, in one word... smoother. While the typical Camembert should be drier, somewhat earthy, but with an explosion of different tastes and aromas.

The second one to come, although not a strict one is the difference in shape and size. While the Brie should be and commonly is bigger in diameter and thinner, the Camembert is smaller and thicker. A lot like a little drum... Some authors have claimed, that the average weight of a Brie should be 500-3500g and the one of the Camembert to be 80-500g. Of course this is not so strict of a difference, but can be noted in most of the examples in the market nowadays.

Thinking of these differences, which one would you prefer? Do you want explosion of tastes, or you are more of a clean-taste person? Would you like the imagination of the wild Camembert yeast to conquer you, or you want to taste the quieter, doctor’s degree traditionalist Brie flavors?
Let me know another differences, if you can think of some, please! I’m open to further knowledge always and will be happy to hear you opinion.

This evening I prefer the wild Camembert character, accompanied with homemade dried pork and a nice home brewed pale ale!

Cheers!

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