Put a triple-cream cheese on a tray with three or four other selections, and the triple cream will vanish first. Triple-cream cheeses seduce us with their richness and silkiness, even if they rarely have much more to offer.
Crémeux des Cîteaux, a French triple cream, meets my expectations for the style. Like Brillat-Savarin, essentially the same cheese in a bigger format, Crémeux des Cîteaux sports a pristine bloomy rind and a luscious, spreadable ivory interior that smells like clotted cream. When triple-cream cheeses disappoint me, it's usually because they have too much salt or a whiff of ammonia. To reach the fat content required for the triple-cream designation (at least 75 percent fat in the dry matter – the cheese minus its water), the cheesemaker has to supplement the cow's milk with cream or creme fraiche. Other than that, the procedure resembles the recipe for Brie.
The curd is cut into large pieces, transferred to perforated molds with a large ladle, drained, flipped out of the molds, salted and matured until the rind develops. Cheeses made in this style are usually out the door within two to three weeks.
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