Cheese of the Week: Maroilles

After a long (and basically cheese-free) week of traveling in Marrakech, we were desperately craving a return to our favorite French culinary basics. We headed to the Versailles market and stocked up on fish, vegetables, fruit and cheeses to satisfy our cravings.

The cheese we selected was called Maroilles (pronounced Mar-Whal).Maroilles is a very old cheese, originating from 960 A.D. when a monk in the Northern region of Pas-de-Callais supposedly created the recipe for this cheese.
Maroilles cheese is made from cow's milk. Its rind develops a rusty reddish-orange color after months of letting it develop a blue mold which is then repeatedly brushed and washed in slightly salted water. It is laid out to ripen on racks and after 2 or 3 months, it is ready to be sold.

This cheese has a strong smell and flavor, but is not over-bearing. For those who like "stinky" cheeses without a scent and taste that will stay with you all day, this cheese may be for you. It's flavor is slightly smoky with undertones of a grassy flavor, and the texture is semi-soft and somewhat spreadable, and its rind is very sticky (but edible) like the rind on the Langres cheese. It's perfect for eating on it's own, with a cold beer, and on a nice slice of crusty baguette.

Unlike other cheeses we've sampled, this cheese is sold either in whole rectangular bricks or in triangular half-bricks. Other cheeses have been sold in triangular slices off of huge circles of cheese, or in round slices of cheese cylinders. This means that you get less of a choice in how much Maroilles you want to buy, but luckily it's a great cheese, so you'll be pleased to have a nice fat brick of it around all week (if it lasts that long!).