Cheese - Double & Triple Cream (Creamy)

Double- and triple-cream cheeses were quite literally crafted for luxury. Emerging from Normandy in the 1850s, bloomy rinds where all the rage for bourgeoisie France, in an era when rich, fatty foods were symbols of wealth and opulence. But even as the intervening years have turned bries and camemberts from luxury goods to household names, double- and triple-creams are as decadent today as they were 150 years ago.

In their country of origin, double- and triple-creams, a family of soft, buttery cheeses with hints of mushroom earthiness, are regulated by culinary law. To be a double-cream, a cheese must contain a minimum of 60% butterfat fat content in the dry matter (FDM/FDB), that is the fat present in the solids that would remain if all of the moisture was removed from the cheese, a quality achieved by adding cream to the milk before it forms curds. In a triple-cream, that fat content is ratcheted up to a minimum of 75% fat content in FDM/FDB, often producing an even richer, more velvety texture and flavor. These finished cheeses however are not 60% or 75% fat however, since you have to account for the water content. For example, a double creme is actually closer to 35% fat since half the cheese is water

Traditional double and triple-creams are made from 100% raw cow’s milk and cream. Both have bloomy rinds formed by yeast and mold blossoming on the surface of the cheese. It takes brie, arguably the best-known style of double cream, just four weeks to mature. When cut, they ooze with creamy, rich goodness.

Both double and triple-crème cheeses have extra cream added before the curd is formed.