A nice soft cheese is one of the few odd and delicious things in this strange old life. It’s creamy, frequently quirky, and occasionally comes with its own tiny outfit. I always eat the outfit—okay, fine, the rind—because it’s delicious, but if you sit down with a group of people and share a large plate of baked brie, at least one of them will leave that white exterior behind. Who is correct? Should we eat the rind? Can you pick up a big ol’ wheel of brie and just bite into it like it’s a burger?
Chicago’s Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Deli’s wholesale account manager, Lisa Futterman, “Without question. Only [skip it] if you really, really don’t like it. There is no reason not to. ”.
She refers to the casing as “that beautiful white rind,” or penicillum candidum, and it is delicious. Advertisement.
Futterman acknowledges that people who have mold allergies may be put off, but she doesn’t let that stop her: “I personally have a mold allergy, and I eat the rind. It’s a different kind of mold. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Food Allergy Resource and Research Network supports this:
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Regarding what to eat and what not to eat: It probably goes without saying that not all cheese rinds should be consumed. Cheese with a waxed rind or a plastic coating should obviously not be consumed. Although it is edible and won’t harm you, Futterman claims that the experience is unpleasant. She also warns against eating cheeses with natural rinds, which resemble rocks or stones and are not meant for consumption. Additionally, because these rinds are frequently the only packaging a cheese has, they are not always hygienic. “Only the real crazy people eat those. if it looks like a rock, don’t eat it. ” (Good advice in general. ).
But it’s not just that eating the brie rind is okay or safe. According to Futterman, the rind is “an integral part of the experience” of eating brie. Although there is a texture difference, the penicillium rind on brie, which starts out as a white layer but eventually turns ivory or almost yellow as it ages, has the strongest flavor. However, even if the cheese is very young, it will still add a specific flavor profile to the experience. This is especially true of aged cheeses. ”Advertisement.
The same holds true for additional soft cheeses with rinds. People are frequently concerned when they pick up a washed-rind cheese that they can smell through the packaging when I work as an occasional fancy whiskey shopgirl and deal with fancy-ass, cheeseboard-ready cheeses. Customers frequently assume that a product has somehow changed because it smells quite strong, even through plastic, like Tulip Tree Creamery’s Foxglove, which is one of my personal favorites. Futterman clarifies why this isn’t the case, saying that washed-rind cheeses have a delicious pink-orange rind. That will be the cheese’s most offensive component if you enjoy stinky cheese. ”.
If you prefer strong flavors in your cheese, avoid skipping the outer layer of baked brie in favor of the gooey middle. Although it may be tempting, Futterman observes that heating the cheese intensifies any strong flavors. ” Advertisement.
Her final piece of advice also deals with heat: avoid heating stinkier cheese if you don’t like it. You should save the rind for me if you don’t want it.
Or maybe not. Maybe you’ll stay stagnant, in a perpetual state of selfishness. It would be so sad, but if it does, could you promise not to show up at my friend Greg’s party the following weekend? I’m trying to enjoy myself, rind and all.
I am not upset with you if you are one of the people who exhibits this type of behavior. Just hear what I have to say, please. And change the way you are.
You wouldn’t remove the patty from a hamburger and give the bun to someone else. Or remove the crust from a pizza’s cheese layer, leaving your best friend with a slab of tomato-stained, greasy mozzarella. Right? I don’t know. Maybe you would.
The cheese rinds, whether they come from brie or another delectable variety of cheese, are incredibly flavorful. The rind provides variety from and complements the paste simultaneously. When it comes to high-quality brie, the rind has a umami-forward flavor and hints of sautéed mushrooms in brown butter. When you combine that with the extremely creamy paste, the result is something that vaguely resembles cream of mushroom soup. Sure, cream is great. And mushrooms are great. But together, they’re more than the sum of their parts.
Only plastic or rinds that are so hard they could break your teeth, such as the wax on red wax gouda or the hard rind on parmesan, should be avoided. A cheesemaker won’t package a cheese that will kill a person if they consume it. That would be bad business. It’s not a good sell to say, “Hey, would you like to try some of our cheese? It might kill you.” I would never buy that cheese. Unless I was trying to assassinate someone who liked cheese.
It develops when the cheese is sprayed with the advantageous molds and bacteria used in cheesemaking prior to aging. In contrast to how hard cheeses ripen, the mold then produces enzymes that aid in the cheese’s inward ripening. This implies that the cheese’s interior softens while the molds create the distinctive white rind of Brie. The cheese matures after 3 to 10 weeks of the ripening process.
Non-edible cheese rinds can be made of cloth, bark, or wax and essentially act as a container for the cheese.
People are asking, “Can I eat this? What do I do with this?” more frequently, according to Bivins. One thing I usually tell people is that the cheesemaker intended for the rind to be present because what happens to the cheese’s exterior can flavor what is found inside. ”.
These cheeses’ rinds, like those on Brie and blue cheese, are crucial to the flavor of the cheese.
Have you ever wondered whether the cheese rinds on a fancy cheese plate were safe to consume?
However, they can enhance the flavor of your culinary creations, according to Dean Sommer, a cheese and food technologist with the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. He advises adding them to soups to add thickness and depth rather than eating them.