On Food and Cooking

Surrealist poet Leon-Paul Fargue is said to
have honored Camembert cheese with the
title les pieds de Dieu — the feet of God.
The Molds, Especially Penicillium Molds are
microbes that require oxygen to grow, can
tolerate drier conditions than bacteria, and
produce powerful protein- and fat- digesting
enzymes that improve the texture and flavor
of certain cheeses. Molds readily develop on
the rind of almost any cheese that is not
regularly wiped to prevent it. The French St.-
Nectaire develops a surface as variegated as
lichen-covered rocks in the fields, with spots
of bright yellow or orange standing out from a
complex, muted background. Some cheeses
are gardened to allow a diverse flora to
develop, while others are seeded with one
particular desired mold. The standard garden
variety molds come from the large and
various genus Penicillium, which also gave us
the antibiotic penicillin.