Sorry, dunno why you’ve chosen this particular stupid hill to die on, but yeah, it’s a type of Brie cheese. It’s literally called triple-cream Brie, and Brillat-Savarin is its nickname.
No, it’s literally called Brillat-Savarin, and some people loosely refer to it as a type of Brie.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016XC0908(01)
Ok, folks. I’m genuinely baffled at the idea of Brillat-Savarin truthers in this thread.
This is super, super basic.
There is a variety of Brie cheese that is made with triple cream (75% butterfat) that is known as Brillat-Savarin.
That is its name. It is a variety of extra-rich brie. Yes, the French would like “brie” to be a protected word for cheese made from a particular area, but the reality is that brie is a cheese style made all over Europe and America. And Brillat-Savarin is one of them.
Just to pile on:
Despite the variety of bries, the French government officially certifies only two types of cheese to be sold under that name: Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun.
(Protection of Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) status).
The following French bries do not have AOC certification: Brie de Montereau, Île-de-France, Brie de Nangis, Brie de Provins, Brie noir, Brie fermier, Brie d’Isigny, Brie de Melun bleu, Brie petit moulé, Brie laitier Coulommiers.
Fun fact:
At the 1815 Congress of Vienna, a meeting of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich1) with the objective to provide a long-term peace plan2) for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, French statesman Talleyrand, in order to brake the ice, staged a cheese competition. The 30 states attending the congress presented a selection of their national cheeses.
The Brie de Meaux was voted “King of the Cheeses”.
1) Now the namesake of a brand of Sekt
2) No, really.
That is of course why people went to war in the past. Become a top general, win a few battles or ideally a whole war and get some item of clothing or a foodstuff named after you.
The Wellington boot. The Cardigan. The Garibaldi biscuit. The Blouse.
There is a cheese named after Andreas Hofer… and pickled herring named after Bismarck…
The anecdotal evidence seems to support your theory.
You should write a paper on this. Or maybe a menu.
Real success is of course if you can get both.
Wellington managed it. Boots and Beef. I can’t offhand think of anyone else who has.
Napoleon only seems to have managed foodstuffs but then he was French.
He did get the complex named after him so…
You know what? You had me at ‘cake made of cheese’.
That’s just because a badly done Beef Wellington is almost indistinguishable from a pair of (leather) Wellington boots. Which are just slightly modified Hessian boots, really.
Another for the list:
Chateaubriand
And I’ll wager a good number of those are likely made in Normandy or thereabouts. The home of Brie. Whereas the B-S seems to be made in Burgundy, according to @cilareg’s Wiki reference. Anyway, B-S may be a brie but it is not a Brie; any more than a large number of yellow hard cheeses in UK are actually Cheddar. I can live with the Brie/brie distinction, but personally B-S is not brie in my universe, it is B-S - of a type all its own.
ETA and now I found this. Several paragraphs jump off the page as responses to some of the assorted posts above. Too many to quote and draw an original poster’s attention to. I heartily recommend reading it as it explains a little more subtly what we have been discussing above.
To the best of my knowledge, Brie originated in what is now the Département Seine-et-Marne (Île-de-France), but which was once the earldom of Brie, owned by the earls of the Champagne. Since Brie was formed by putting Meaux and Troyes together. And before that, Charlemagne was involved somehow, no doubt.
Not that Normandy isn’t a good place to make fine cheeses. And calvados.
Brie d’Isigny is made quite close to my usual Norman haunts, as are some others I believe, and, of course, Camembert, Pont l’Eveque and Livarot - all 'creamy/soft rind cheeses, of varied pungency according to age - are great Norman cheeses. And those three are real smelly when very ripe. You are correct, of course that the AOC pair do emanate from Ile de France.
But lots of dairy cows in Normandy and perfect weather for grass pasture make it a great place to make cheese, as you say. There is a large variety of local creamy brie-like cheeses, none of which are labelled brie or have that distinctive shape, but one or two at least, that are.
Now I’m hungry.
Let’s see… I’ve got Cheddar, Roquefort, some goat’s cheese from Friesland (NL) that is quite like Gouda, Edam, Tilsit, Emmental, and … Brie.
I’m good.
… and good bread and some toast-making accoutrements, I trust?
Goes without saying.
Yep. You’re good.
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