A soft, creamy, surface-ripened cow's milk cheese.

It was first made by Marie Harel in Normandy from unpasteurised milk in 1791 and the AOC variety is required to be made only with unpasteurised milk although many good pasteurised Camemberts are made in Normandy and elsewhere (the AOC was awarded in 1983 and Camembert de Normandie was granted a PDO in 1992).

The cheese is made by inoculating warmed milk with bacteria, then adding rennet and allowing the mixture to coagulate. The curd is then cut into roughly 1 cm cubes, salted and transferred to low cylindrical camembert moulds. The moulds are turned every 6 to 12 hours to allow the whey to drain evenly from the cut curds. After 48 hours, each mould contains a flat, cylindrical, solid cheese mass. At this point the fresh cheese is hard, crumbly and bland. The surface of each cheese is then sprayed with an aqueous suspension of Penicillium camemberti and the cheeses are left to ripen for the required minimum of 3 weeks. Once the cheeses are sufficiently ripe, they are wrapped in paper and may be placed in wooden boxes for transport.

Young Camembert has a milky and sweet taste. As the cheese matures it forms a smooth, runny interior with a rich buttery flavour and a white bloomy edible rind.