On Food and Cooking

him. Charles...required nothing else, but
taking up his knife and throwing away the
mold, which seemed to him abominable, he
ate the white of the cheese. Then the
bishop, who was standing nearby like a
servant, drew close and said “Why do you
do that, lord Emperor? You are throwing
away the best part.” On the persuasion of
the bishop, Charles...put a piece of the
mold in his mouth, and slowly ate it and
swallowed it like butter. Then, approving
the bishop’s advice, he said “Very true, my
good host,” and he added, “Be sure to send
me every year to Aix two cartloads of such
cheeses.”
The word I’ve translated as “mold” is
aerugo in the Latin: literally, “the rust of
copper.” The cheese isn’t named, and some
writers have deduced that it was a Brie,
which then had an external coat of gray-
green mold, much the same color as
weathered copper. But I think it was