Hervé talks affinage

For you bilingual readers, here's another short segment staring my boss. Here he describes what is affinage pretty clearly... as long as you understand French!

Carbone 42 - L'affinage du fromage chez Mons

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When he notes that we don't quite understand why a mould might appear in abundance one day and not at all the next, he's describing the challenge that is affinage.  As much as we'd like to break down the science of affinage into simple causes and effects, there are so many factors influencing one outcome that we are forced to treat the trade like an art.

"We're in a world of mushrooms, yeasts and moulds.  That's our job."  He continues, saying that we grumble when we see cheeses without any rinds or moulds because perhaps the cheeses are meant to be sold quickly or are packaged this way to avoid loosing any moisture (which keeps the weight and the price high), but this practice is detrimental to the flavor and the consistency of the cheeses.