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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from France, Seine-et-Marne

Coulommiers

Coulommiers is a small Brie-type cheese of cow milk, about 5–6 inches across and an inch thick in a 1928 description. Like Brie, the milk is set slowly with rennet, ladled into hoops without pressing and salted, and a white Penicillium camemberti rind grows over it in a few days. It has no protected designation. Made in 6 steps over 23 days – 38 days. The longest step, ripen in a cool cellar, takes 14–28 days (Doane C.F 1928) and runs at 13 °C (Doane C.F 1928). Penicillium camemberti, which grew fast on Coulommiers from day 2 to day 9 (66 to 119 mg mycelium per g) and peaked at day 9 and Surface moulds whose enzymes break down the casein from the outside in do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step14–28 daysReported[doane1928]Ripen in a cool cellar
Temperature13 °CReported[doane1928]Ripen in a cool cellar

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo standard recipe was found for Coulommiers itself; the steps follow the 1928 description of Brie, of which it is the small form.
Cow milk · Whole or partly skimmed; evening milk was often mixed with the next morning's (for Brie, 1928)[doane1928]
Rennet[doane1928]
Penicillium camemberti · The white surface mould[ledrean2010]
Salt · Sprinkled on the surface; sometimes mixed with charcoal (for Brie, 1928)[doane1928]
Starter: lactic cultures and Penicillium camemberti spores in modern making

Total time across the recorded steps: 23 days – 38 days

Start
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Milk proteinGel (curd)27–29 °Cshapes, not to countPenicillium camembertiMoulds

What changes: Rennet sets the milk slowly into a soft curd over about two hours

Step 1 of 6
Set the milk with rennet
Time
2 h
Reported
Temperature
27–29 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Penicillium camemberti
Moulds
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Coulommiers is the small form of Brie, about 5–6 inches across against up to 15 inches for the largest Brie in 1928. Unlike Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun, it has no protected designation.

Milk
Cow milk
Size
5 or 6 inches across, 1 inch thick, about 1 pound (1928)
Status
No protected designation; a generic name

Related ferments

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Brie is mentioned as early as 1407, and Meaux, Coulommiers and Melun in Seine-et-Marne were known for it, often under local names. By 1928 Coulommiers was described as a small Brie of about a pound.

  1. [doane1928] Doane C.F., Lawson H.W., revised by Matheson K.J. 1928, Varieties of cheese, descriptions and analyses, USDA Bulletin 608 (Brie; Coulommiers)archive
  2. [ledrean2010] Le Dréan G., Mounier J., Vasseur V. et al. 2010, Quantification of Penicillium camemberti and P. roqueforti mycelium by real-time PCR to assess their growth dynamics during ripening cheese, International Journal of Food Microbiology 138:100–107 (abstract)paper
  3. [pawulgruba2025] Pawul-Gruba M., Denis E., Kiljanek T., Osek J. 2025, Prevalence of biogenic amines and their relation to the bacterial content in ripened cheeses on the retail market in Poland, Foods 14(14):2478paper