page_title: Camembert cheese
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Camembert cheese / History
caption_attribution_description: English: French-made Camebert cheese on a plate. Svenska: Camembert ost på en tallrik
context_page_description: Camembert cheese, more generally known as Camembert, is a French soft cheese. It originated in the village of Camembert in Normandy. Since 1983, the name Camembert de Normandie has been protected as Appellation d'Origine controlée.
context_section_description: Camembert was reputedly invented in 1791 by Marie Harel, a farmer from Normandy. However, the origin of the cheese we know today as camembert is more likely to rest with the beginnings of the industrialisation of the cheese-making process at the end of the 19th century. In 1890, an engineer, M. Ridel invented the wooden box which was used to carry the cheese and helped to send it for longer distances, in particular to America where it became very popular. These boxes are still used today.
  
  Before fungi were properly understood, the colour of Camembert rind was a matter of chance, most commonly blue-grey, with brown spots. From the early 20th century onwards the rind has been more commonly pure white, but it was not until the mid-1970s that pure white became standard.
  The cheese was famously issued to French troops in the First World War, becoming firmly fixed in the French popular culture as a result. It has many other roles in French culture, literature and history. It is now internationally known, and many local varieties are made around the world.
  The cheese is said to have inspired Salvador Dalí to create his famous painting, The Persistence of Memory. Its "melting" watches were inspired by the sight of a melting wheel of over-ripe Camembert.
  The Camembert de Normandie was granted a protected designation of origin in 1992 after the original AOC in 1983.
caption: Camembert cheese showing the wooden box
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