Brillat Savarin – one of France’s most famous cheeses named after one of France’s most famous gastronomes.
A triple cream cheese that’s made from whole milk with added cream. Luxurious and decadent, it’s often called the ‘foie gras of cheeses’ and when you taste it you can see why. It’s smooth and rich, creamy and buttery. It melts in your mouth.
A triple cream cheese must contain more than 75% fat in its dry matter (the amount of fat that is present in the solids that would remain if all the moisture were removed from the cheese). In reality, it’s around 40% fat (about the same as really thick double cream).
Brillat Savarin once said ‘un diner sans fromage est un homme sans moustache’. A dinner without cheese is a man without a moustache. What was that all about?
Well, as it happens, pretty much ALL men in the late 19th century sported a moustache. It was compulsary to have one after 1860 if you were in the army, the upper classes all wore one and those that couldn’t grow one wore fake ones. Can you believe that?
Servants, ministers, priests and waiters however were forbidden from wearing moustaches (keep them in their place if you will).
In 1907 the waiters in the big Paris restaurants made a stand. They wanted the right to sport a moustache if they wanted to and this became more important then their pay check. One by one they began to walk out, fed up of the rules being imposed upon them by their employers and upper class Parisiens.
Check out this little video that gives you the low down on the Great Moustache Strike of 1907. It’s a fascinating snapshot of social history.
