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  • 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.

Claudia Romeo: We're in Seine-et-Marne, in France,

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