Maroilles

Stinky cheese is great cheese.















Or I think so. Then, I came home last week to find my maroilles inside its paper, inside its plastic dish, wrapped in a bag and inside a pot in yet another bag in the fridge with a wee air freshener perched atop the refrigerator.

Apparently my flatmate does not.

Maroilles, from the Nord-Pas de Calais, is another of France's oldest cheeses. It has been produced in the same area since about 960 a.d. and owes its name to a small abbey in the Avesnois region where it was first made.

Note the white stamp in the upper left of the label. It is one of a small number of French cheeses to benefit from a protected label of origin, AOC, that regulates and guarantees its manufacture.

Maroilles is a washed rind cow's milk cheese with a soft paste. The washing produces the typical orange and slightly striated crust. It has a unique make process that after two, three, or up to four months of aging, results in its pungent aroma and delicate savoury creaminess.

Although I don't typically cook with cheese (especially with its pricetag), the traditional Maroilles dish, 'La flamiche' (similar to a quiche) is delicious. I prefer it 'as is' as a snack with a glass of beer or at the end of the meal accompanied by the remainder of the wine.