Marin French Cheese Company
The Marin French Cheese Company is a manufacturer of artisan cheese located in rural west Marin County, California. The company was founded in 1865 by Jefferson Thompson, produces cheeses under the Marin French Cheese brand name, it is the oldest continually operating cheese manufacturer in the United States. Early antecedents of the company may go back as far as 1854, although historical records from that era are sketchy. Other accounts state that a local woman named Clara Steele roped wild Spanish cattle in the area to make cheese starting in 1857, it is known that Jefferson Thompson established the current company in 1865, his descendants continued the business for 133 years. The company used the Rouge et Noir brand name from 1906 until 2013, when the "Marin French Cheese" brand was created. Howard Bunce, former operations manager for the company, described their original product, "In the early years we made a granular cheese, it was a'bar cheese', served to San Francisco dock workers – it was shipped by paddle wheeler down the Petaluma River to San Francisco."In the 1930s, the dairy herd was decimated by disease, was replaced by Jersey cows from Oregon.
In 1998, Bob Thompson sold the business to the Boyce family of Bishop, operators of organic cattle ranches in eastern California and Nevada. Jim Boyce said that the company has a "symbiotic relationship" with the local dairy farmers who supply much of its milk. Mr. Boyce died in 2010 and, in 2011, Marin French was purchased by Rians, the respected French family of cheese producers that owns Laura Chenel's Chèvre in neighboring Sonoma County; the company's original product in 1865 was a breakfast cheese, transported by horse-drawn carriage to Petaluma, carried by steamboat to San Francisco, where it was sold to waterfront dockworkers. They still manufacture this breakfast cheese. Other products include brie, camembert, chèvre and washed-rind triple creme Schloss. In 2015 Petite Breakfast wears the commemorative vintage label, “1865” to celebrate their 150th year and honor their cheesemakers who sustained the craft over decades; the Marin French Cheese Company is located on a 425-acre dairy ranch in the Hicks Valley, includes a 9,000-square-foot cheese processing and retail sales facility, as well as a variety of barns, storage buildings and a picnic area.
Although the company has a Petaluma address, it is located 11 miles southwest west of that city. It is 11 miles northwest of Novato; the company conducts art exhibits at its location. The company collaborates with other local cheesemakers in Marin and Sonoma counties to support the annual California Artisan Cheese Festival, held in Petaluma. Former company's owner, Jim Boyce, describes their philosophy, "We remain dedicated to a rich heritage of artisan craftsmanship, passed down through the generations. Marin French Cheese Company now produces more than 40 different styles and varieties of cheese, yet each is handmade the same patient way, one cheese at a time, aged in the original hand dug cellar, hand weighed and packaged." In 2005, the company's Triple Creme Brie won top honors in the pasteurized milk brie category at the World Cheese Awards in London. This was the only gold medal awarded in the class that year. List of cheesemakers Company website
Smoking (cooking)
Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most wood. Meat and lapsang souchong tea are smoked. In Europe, alder is the traditional smoking wood, but oak is more used now, beech to a lesser extent. In North America, mesquite, pecan, alder and fruit-tree woods, such as apple and plum, are used for smoking. Other biomass besides wood can be employed, sometimes with the addition of flavoring ingredients. Chinese tea-smoking uses a mixture of uncooked rice and tea, heated at the base of a wok; some North American ham and bacon makers smoke their products over burning corncobs. Peat is burned to smoke the barley malt used to make whisky and some beers. In New Zealand, sawdust from the native manuka is used for hot smoking fish. In Iceland, dried sheep dung is used to cold-smoke fish, lamb and whale. Farms in the Western world included a small building termed the "smokehouse," where meats could be smoked and stored; this was well-separated from other buildings both because of the fire danger and because of the smoke emanations.
Smoking can be done in four ways: cold smoking, warm smoking, hot smoking, through the employment of "liquid smoke". However, these methods of imparting smoke only affect the food surface, are unable to preserve food, smoking is paired with other microbial hurdles, such as chilling and packaging, to extend food shelf-life; the smoking of food dates back to the paleolithic era. As caves or simple huts lacked chimneys, these dwellings would have become smoky, it is supposed that early men would hang meat up to dry and out of the way of pests, thus accidentally becoming aware that meat, stored in smoky areas acquired a different flavor, was better preserved than meat that dried out. This process was combined with pre-curing the food in salt or salty brine, resulting in a remarkably effective preservation process, adapted and developed by numerous cultures around the world; until the modern era, smoking was of a more "heavy duty" nature as the main goal was to preserve the food. Large quantities of salt were used in the curing process and smoking times were quite long, sometimes involving days of exposure.
The advent of modern transportation made it easier to transport food products over long distances and the need for the time and material intensive heavy salting and smoking declined. Smoking became more of a way to flavor. In 1939 a device called; the kiln allowed for uniform mass-smoking and is considered the prototype for all modern large-scale commercial smokers. Although refinements in technique and advancements in technology have made smoking much easier, the basic steps involved remain the same today as they were hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Cold smoking differs from hot smoking in that the food remains raw, rather than cooked, throughout the smoking process. Smokehouse temperatures for cold smoking are done between 20 to 30 °C. In this temperature range, foods take on a smoked flavor, but remain moist. Cold smoking does not cook foods, as such, meats should be cured before cold smoking. Cold smoking can be used as a flavor enhancer for items such as cheese or nuts, along with meats such as chicken breasts, pork chops, salmon and steak.
The item is hung in a dry environment first to develop a pellicle it can be cold smoked up to several days to ensure it absorbs the smokey flavour. Some cold smoked foods are baked, steamed, roasted, or sautéed before eating. Cold smoking meats is not something that should be attempted at home, according to the US National Center for Home Food Preservation:"Most food scientists cannot recommend cold-smoking methods because of the inherent risks." Cold smoking meats should only be attempted by personnel certified in HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, to ensure that it is safely prepared. Warm smoking exposes foods to temperatures of 25–40 °C. Hot smoking exposes the foods to smoke and heat in a controlled environment such as a smoker oven or smokehouse. Hot smoking requires the use of a smoker which generates heat either from a charcoal base, heated element within the smoker or from a stove-top or oven, food is hot smoked by cooking and flavoured with wood smoke simultaneously.
Like cold smoking, the item may be hung first to develop a pellicle, it is smoked from 1 hour to as long as 24 hours. Although foods that have been hot smoked are reheated or further cooked, they are safe to eat without further cooking. Hams and ham hocks are cooked once they are properly smoked, they can be eaten as is without any further preparation. Hot smoking occurs within the range of 52 to 80 °C; when food is smoked within this temperature range, foods are cooked and flavorful. If the smoker is allowed to get hotter than 85 °C, the foods will shrink excessively, buckle, or split. Smoking at high temperatures reduces yield, as both moisture and fat are cooked away. Liquid smoke, a product derived from smoke compounds in water, is applied to foods through spraying or dipping. Smoke-roasting refers to any process that has the attributes of both smoking; this smoking method is sometimes referred to as pit-roasting. It may be done in a sm
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne is a French department, named after the Seine and Marne rivers, located in the Île-de-France region. Seine-et-Marne is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790 during the French Revolution in application of the law of 22 December 1789, it had belonged to the former province of Île-de-France. With 60% of the region used as farmland, Seine-et-Marne is where most agricultural activity occurs within the Île-de-France. Cereals and sugar beet are the principal exports from Seine-et-Marne; the other key industrial structures are the refinery at the Snecma research plant. The two new towns are the centre of tourism for the department due to theme parks such as Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris. Seine-et-Marne has a temperate Atlantic climate; the average rainfall is based upon that of Fontainebleau, giving an average rainfall of 650 mm, higher than the average of Île-de-France. Average temperature in Melun during the 1953–2002 period was 3.2 °C for January and 18.6 °C for July.
The storm of 26 December 1999 caused several trees to fall. Seine-et-Marne forms a part of the Île-de-France region, it is bordered by Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Essonne to the West. The department has many natural reserves, notably Gâtinais; the highest point of the département is Saint-George's Hill. People from Seine-et-Marne are known as the Seine-et-Marnais. Seine-et-Marne was rural and populated. Over the past 50 years, its population has tripled, due to the development of the Paris conurbation and the building of new towns in the northwest of the region; the population was estimated to be 1,267,496 inhabitants in 2006. The region has changed from consisting only of small villages to forming a large part of the Paris conurbation. Seine-et-Marne as a whole shares a sister city relationship with Orlando, United States, as both host Disney theme parks. Collège de Juilly Forest of Fontainebleau Cantons of the Seine-et-Marne department Communes of the Seine-et-Marne department Arrondissements of the Seine-et-Marne department Lion, Christian, La Mutuelle de Seine-et-Marne contre l'incendie de 1819 à 1969.
Mutualité, assurance et cycles de l'incendie. Prefecture website General Council website
Somerset
Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel, its coastline facing southeastern Wales, its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset's county town is Taunton. Somerset is a rural county of rolling hills, the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park, large flat expanses of land including the Somerset Levels. There is evidence of human occupation from Paleolithic times, of subsequent settlement by the Celts and Anglo-Saxons; the county played a significant part in Alfred the Great's rise to power, the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. The city of Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Somerset's name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, short for Sumortūnsǣte, meaning "the people living at or dependent on Sumortūn"; the first known use of Somersæte is in the law code of King Ine, the Saxon King of Wessex from 688 to 726, making Somerset along with Hampshire and Dorset one of the oldest extant units of local government in the world.
An alternative suggestion is the name derives from Seo-mere-saetan meaning "settlers by the sea lakes". The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, Sumorsǣte ealle, meaning "all the people of Somerset". Adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Somerset was a part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, the phrase refers to the wholehearted support the people of Somerset gave to King Alfred in his struggle to save Wessex from Viking invaders. Somerset settlement names are Anglo-Saxon in origin, but numerous place names include Brittonic Celtic elements, such as the rivers Frome and Avon, names of hills. For example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as "the hill the British call Cructan and the Anglo-Saxons call Crychbeorh"; some modern names are Brythonic in origin, such as Tarnock, while others have both Saxon and Brythonic elements, such as Pen Hill. The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Palaeolithic period, contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge.
Bones from Gough's Cave have been dated to 12,000 BC, a complete skeleton, known as Cheddar Man, dates from 7150 BC. Examples of cave art have been found in Aveline's Hole; some caves continued to be occupied until modern times, including Wookey Hole. The Somerset Levels—specifically dry points at Glastonbury and Brent Knoll— have a long history of settlement, are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was facilitated by the construction of one of the world's oldest known engineered roadways, the Sweet Track, which dates from 3807 BC or 3806 BC; the exact age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it is believed to be Neolithic. There are numerous Iron Age hill forts, some of which, like Cadbury Castle and Ham Hill, were reoccupied in the Early Middle Ages. On the authority of the future emperor Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in AD 47.
The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around AD 409, when the Roman occupation of Britain came to an end. A variety of Roman remains have been found, including Pagans Hill Roman temple in Chew Stoke,Low Ham Roman Villa and the Roman Baths that gave their name to the city of Bath. After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples. By AD 600 they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands; the British held back Saxon advance into the south-west for some time longer, but by the early eighth century King Ine of Wessex had pushed the boundaries of the West Saxon kingdom far enough west to include Somerset. The Saxon royal palace in Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, large areas were owned by the crown, with fortifications such as Dunster Castle used for control and defence. Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, England's oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610.
In the English Civil War Somerset was Parliamentarian, with key engagements being the Sieges of Taunton and the Battle of Langport. In 1685 the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in neighbouring Dorset; the rebels landed at Lyme Regis and travelled north, hoping to capture Bristol and Bath, but they were defeated in the Battle of Sedgemoor at Westonzoyland, the last pitched battle fought in England. Arthur Wellesley took Duke of Wellington from the town of Wellington; the Industrial Revolution in the Midlands and Northern England spelled the end for most of Somerset's cottage industries. Farming continued to flourish and the Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts and Commerce was founded in 1777 to improve farming methods. Despite this, 20 years John Billingsley conducted a survey of the county's agriculture in 1795 and found that agricultural methods could still be improved. Coal mining was an important industry in north Somerset during the 18th and 19th centuries, by 1800 it was prominent in Radstock.
The Somerset Coalfield reached its peak production by the 1920s, but all the pits have now been closed, the last in 1973. Most of the surface
Penicillium camemberti
Penicillium camemberti is a species of fungus in the genus Penicillium. It is used in the production of Camembert, Langres and Cambozola cheeses, on which colonies of P. camemberti form a hard, white crust. It is responsible for giving these cheeses their distinctive flavors. An allergy to the antibiotic penicillin does not imply an allergy to cheeses made using P. camemberti. When making soft cheese that involves P. camemberti, the mold may be mixed into the ingredients before being placed in the molds, or it may be added to the outside of the cheese after it is removed from the cheese molds. P. camemberti is responsible for the soft, buttery texture of Brie and Camembert, but a too high concentration may lead to an undesirable bitter taste. Using PCR techniques, cheese manufacturers can control cheesemaking by monitoring the mycelial growth of P. camemberti. This is significant, as controlling the growth is important to maintain desirable levels of compounds for flavor and to keep toxicity at a safe level.
The fungus was first described by Dr. Charles Thom in 1906, it is considered to be a great subject for experiments and tests, as the fungus thrives well in artificial situations, creates dense, enzymatic mycelia, is available in markets from cheeses. P. camemberti is important economically for the cheese industry. Twenty-four isolates of Penicillium species are known, resulting in “considerable taxonomic confusion”. However, these strains are only antigenically related, having similarities in micromorphology, growth rates, toxin production, the ability to grow in water and at low temperatures; these isolates can be grouped into nine subdivisions below the species level. This indicates that P. commune Thom is the wild-type, or the strain occurring in nature, ancestor of P. camemberti. The complete genome sequence of P. camemberti was published in 2014. As a fungus, P. camemberti can produce toxins, in cyclopiazonic acid. The amount of the mycotoxin produced depends on the strain of P. camemberti, as well as the temperature at which the culture is grown.
Additionally, the toxin is more concentrated on the crust of the fungus rather than the inner part. In regards to safety consumers would only receive lower than a 4-μg dose of cyclopiazonic acid. Still, using weaker strains of the fungus is advised, since the secretion of the toxin appears to be natural and necessary, but unhealthy for cheese consumers. Since P. camemberti is responsible for the main flavor and odor of popular cheeses, the fungus can be used for the flavoring of other foods, such as dry, fermented sausages. José M. Bruna and his team saw that the flavor comes from compounds produced by the fungus, such as ammonia, methyl ketones and secondary alcohols and aldehydes, decided to superficially inoculate P. camemberti on dry, fermented sausages to improve its sensory properties. P. camembertipromotes proteolysis and lipolysis, the breakdown of proteins and lipids, resulting in free amino acids, free fatty acids, volatile compounds that allow for the ripened flavor. The fungus created a mycelium, protecting the lipids within, allowing for better flavor and odor of sausages.
This is a potential starter culture for fermented sausages. List of Penicillium species
Brie (region)
Brie is a historic region of northern France notable in modern times for Brie cheese. It was once divided into three sections ruled by different feudal lords: the western Brie française, corresponding to the modern department of Seine-et-Marne in the Île-de-France region; the Brie forms a plateau with few eminences, varying in altitude between 100–150 metres in the west, 150–200 metres in the east. Its scenery is varied by forests of some size—the chief being the Forêt de Sénart, the Forêt de Crécy-la-Chapelle, the Forêt d'Armainvilliers; the surface soil is clay in which are embedded fragments of siliceous sandstone, used for millstones and constructional purposes. The Marne and its tributaries the Grand Morin and the Petit Morin are the chief rivers, but the region is not abundantly watered and the rainfall is only between 50–60 centimetres. Main towns: Brie-Comte-Robert Château-Thierry Coulommiers Crécy-la-Chapelle La Ferté-Gaucher La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Meaux Nangis Melun ProvinsMain rivers: Marne Grand Morin Petit MorinMain forests: Forêt d'Armainvilliers Forêt de Crécy-la-Chapelle Forêt de Ferrières Forêt de Notre-Dame Forêt de Sénart Forêt de Villefermoy
French Revolution
The French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France and its colonies beginning in 1789. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, catalyzed violent periods of political turmoil, culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon who brought many of its principles to areas he conquered in Western Europe and beyond. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics and liberal democracies. Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history; the causes of the French Revolution are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution, the French government was in debt, it attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes, which were regressive.
Leading up to the Revolution, years of bad harvests worsened by deregulation of the grain industry and environmental problems inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the aristocracy and the Catholic clergy of the established church. Some historians hold something similar to what Thomas Jefferson proclaimed: that France had "been awakened by our Revolution." Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates General in May 1789. During the first year of the Revolution, members of the Third Estate took control, the Bastille was attacked in July, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was passed in August, the Women's March on Versailles forced the royal court back to Paris in October. A central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime; the next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms.
The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy. In a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats shaped the course of the Revolution; the Revolutionary Wars beginning in 1792 featured French victories that facilitated the conquest of the Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries and most territories west of the Rhine – achievements that had eluded previous French governments for centuries. Internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins; the dictatorship imposed by the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror, from 1793 until 1794, established price controls on food and other items, abolished slavery in French colonies abroad, de-established the Catholic church and created a secular Republican calendar, religious leaders were expelled, the borders of the new republic were secured from its enemies. After the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795.
They suspended elections, repudiated debts, persecuted the Catholic clergy, made significant military conquests abroad. Dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. Napoleon, who became the hero of the Revolution through his popular military campaigns, established the Consulate and the First Empire, setting the stage for a wider array of global conflicts in the Napoleonic Wars; the modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution. All future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor, its central phrases and cultural symbols, such as La Marseillaise and Liberté, fraternité, égalité, ou la mort, became the clarion call for other major upheavals in modern history, including the Russian Revolution over a century later. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day; the Revolution resulted in the suppression of the feudal system, emancipation of the individual, a greater division of landed property, abolition of the privileges of noble birth, nominal establishment of equality among men.
The French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not only national, for it intended to benefit all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of democracies, it became the focal point for the development of most modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism and secularism, among many others. The Revolution witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France and the lives of its citizens towards the objective of military conquest; some of its central documents, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, continued to inspire movements for abolitionism and universal suffrage in the next century. Historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Rising social and economic inequality, new political ideas emerging from the Enlightenment, economic mismanagement, environmental factors leading to agricultural failure, unmanageable national debt, political mismanagement on the part of King Louis XVI have all been cited as laying the groundwork for the Revolution.
Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the "public sphere" in France and elsewhere
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