Just a cheese question

It could be a couple of reasons
1) The cheese here could be older ... as cheese ages it dries out and becomes more firm
2) Unpasteurized cheese does tend to be more gooey.
3) Many of the "best" cheeses are either not available in the U.S. or are hard to find. For example, I love the roquefort cheese produced by Carles but I have never found it in the U.S. Most stores carry Societe Bee. I have sometimes found Papillon.
4) At the good cheese shops in France, they steer you towards cheese that is ready to eat.

You may have better luck with artisanal American cheeses local to your area. For example, I like the Cowgirl Creamery Mt Tam and the Old Chatham's Nancy Hudson Valley Camembert better than the French Bries sold in the U.S.

I have a hard time finding the same quality Comte or the mini wheels of goat rolled in light grey ash from the Loire. Fortunately, I don't have long to wait for some of the real thing.

A lot of French cheeses are made with raw milk - either goat or cow. Pasteurized cheeses won't have the same consistency, no matter how long you leave them at room temperature.
If you want to enjoy the same consistency that you found in France, you should go on the internet and look for raw milk cheeses which can be delivered to your door.
Hard cheeses should be taken out of the fridge about 90 mins before you serve them. Semi-soft cheeses (like many goat cheeses) about

as I was saying...
about 60 minutes at room temperature.
Soft cheeses (like Camembert) should be taken out about 45 to 60 minutes, depending upon how ripe they are.

It doesn't hurt raw milk or pasteurized cheese at all if you leave it out a little longer.

Other than fondue and raclette (a large slice of hard cheese put under a special broiler to melt, then everyone scrapes off the amount he wants and puts it on boiled potatoes, etc) , the only cheese that is regularly heated is Mont d'Or - it's served in its own wooden box, with a large spoon so everyone can help themselves.

I appreciate the responses, thank you! I came across Epoisses and Camembert in the grocery store and was so excited to buy them and eat them for New Years. But, I want them to taste like France!! I never seem to get good cheeses to taste like they did in France! I guess I just have to go back!!

Unfortunately, they won't be the same. The U.S. requires that cheese either be made from pasteurized milk or aged at least 60 days.

Both camembert and epoisses are made with raw milk in France. What we get here is made with pasteurized milk.

You will just need to plan another trip to France :)

Do you have a proper cheese store where you live , I can get some good imported cheeses here from a specialty shop downtown , I love a certain Brie and they often have it ( Brie de Meaux !)

Supermarket cheeses are often not properly ripe and not very good even if ripe .

And yes , cheese should be taken out of fridge for 30-60 minutes before it is eaten

When it comes to cheese I work with the assumption that the so-called "best before date" is a misnomer. You should read the date given as the "best after date". That's most the cheese I buy and it even comes at a discount most of the time ;-)

You'll just have to schedule another trip to France.
Come prepared with a bunch of Ziploc bags, Tupperware containers and you can bring back as much raw milk cheese as you want. The only exception at the moment is "aged Mimolette", which has harmless mites living in the rind.

Ask the fromager to sell you cheese that will be ripe when you want to eat it. A good fromager can stagger your purchases for you, and you can keep it in the fridge until you're ready to eat it.
I'm not a fan of vacuum-packing cheese, unless it's a particularly stinky, dead-ripe cheese. It's better for the cheese to keep breathing in Ziploc bags.

US Customs is only concerned if you are bringing large amounts of cheese for re-sale. You should declare "cheese" and the approximate amount spent, but don't have to specify anything else.

I find that Epoisses needs more than an hour to warm up and get properly gooey. But maybe my house is colder?
You want the rind to be a toasty orange, not creamy yellow. Otherwise it's not old enough. I sometimes wonder if the business of wrapping it up in cellophane slows down the aging process and reduces the skunk factor. So maybe open it up and place it somewhere cool but not cold the day before?

Also, just because one buys Epoisses in France doesn't mean it won't be from pasteurized milk. The Berthaut brand, the big industrial outfit and the one that dominates the export market, is almost always pasteurized.
Epoisses from unpasteurized milk is not easy to find. You have to ask, even in France.

That recipe looks amazing! I will try that for sure!

Hoping the Epoisse will taste decent. It sure was expensive! It does have the orange color to it, and we've been wondering what died in our refrigerator until our daughter informed us it was the Epoisse! The use before date is Jan 17. I'll make sure to leave that our for some time before we eat it.

Thanks again!

There are several reasons that your cheese might not taste the same as ones you've had in France. Besides the reasons given above (particularly the pasteurization/raw milk issue), there's the fact that you're not eating them in France. French Food and wine just tastes better when you're in France. I first realized that many years ago when we had a wine in France that we thought was fabulous, but when we had another bottle at home, I wondered what all the fuss was about. Maybe it was because we had the first bottle with a picnic lunch sitting along the Canal du Midi.
With regard to temperature, we had a French cheese vendor once tell us, after we bought a bunch of cheese: "Jamais, jamais dans la frigo." I think maybe he was going a little too far, but generally we don't refrigerate our cheese when we're in France.
As to someone's comment about Berthaut Epoisses, it's too bad they seem to have changed. We stopped there 20 years ago, and I think all their cheese was raw milk.

Robert, you are so right! All food was amazing in France, even if it wasn't! But, it was!!!

Just need to get back there ASAP!

Going on a Mediterranean cruise with dear old 91 year old dad next summer. We make one stop in France, and of course we will be on an excursion and likely eat lunch at a hotel or something. Maybe I'll have to sneak away and eat and buy some cheese :-)

Ok, time to report back on the cheese!

Emma, that Camembert recipe was amazing!! That will be on the new appetizer list!

And the Berthaut Epoisses: I left it out for about 6 hours before we ate it and I have to report that is was gooey goodness!