2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Cheese-Making Tradition Melts Away in Cam

(France is known for its hundreds of) cheeses. The most famous is perhaps the soft round Camembert, now enjoyed all over the world, but to be considered a real Camembert, the cheese must be made in Normandy, in northwestern France from the milk of Norman cows. In the village of Camembert, there is only one man left making cheese in a traditional way. Eleanor Beardsley reports.

The tiny village of Camembert lies in the heart of Normandy, nestled among patchwork¹ fields dotted with grazing cows. Aside from the satellite dishes that now crowns some of the thatched roof houses ,not much seems to have changed here in the past two hundred years except name recognition of course. The name Camembert is now famous the world over. The last cheese maker² in the village Francois Durand still makes his Camembert by hand.

'My name is Francois Durand. I am 44 years old and I make farm-style Camembert cheese in Camembert. And I am also the last maker of farm-style Appalachian-controlled Camembert cheese in France.'

Farm-style means that Durand uses the milk from his own cows to make about 120,000 Camembert a year. This morning he is just beginning a fresh batch³. After heating vats⁴ of freshly drawn⁵ milk to 90 degrees, he mixes / in a small dose of the enzyme⁶ rennin which is extracted from the stomachs of calves⁷. The enzyme called pizura in France curdles⁸ the vats of milk which Durand then cuts and ladles into dozens of Camembert moulds lined up on straw mats. Most large industrial Camembert makers⁹ use a mechanized process and many pasteurized their milk. But in the tradition of the best cheese makers, Durand works with unpasteurized or raw milk.

‘There is a huge difference in taste between a pasteurized cheese and a raw milk cheese. By using raw milk, we keep all the natural fermentations. When you pasteurize or heat the milk to 167 degrees, you kill the fermentations in the milk and you have to use synthetic¹⁰ ones, that are not as good.’

Durand claims cheese made from raw milk has distinct advantages for the human body.

Someone who only eats pasteurized products, the day he comes across a pathogen like wisteria, will be a lot more vulnerable than someone who has eaten raw milk / products all his life because the body gradually immunizes itself.

After the curdled¹¹ milk is ladled into the moulds layer by layer, it is left for 24 hours. By then, the liquid has drained off and the cheese has become more dense¹². When the moulds are removed, the round cheeses are salted but they are not Camembert yet. For the transformation¹³ to take place, the cheese must spend at least two more weeks in a cool dark room for the process of affinage. During this time, a layer of fuzzy white mould develops on the cheese giving it the distinctive¹⁴ Camembert odor and taste.

Just down the hill from the church in Camembert stands a memorial to Marie Harel. She is credited with inventing the cheese in 1789. Mayor’s office in a small Camembert museum next door / both closed. But 80-year-old, Camembert native Pierre Blais is outside in his garden. He points to a wooden-beamed house on a hill where he saysMarie Harel used to live.

‘She hid a priest there in that house upon the hill, because you know, during the French Revolution priests were meant to disappear. Well he was hidden for quite a while up there in that house. And during that time, he gave her the secret to making Camembert.’

From time to time, the story has been contested but no one has yet found a better version. Back at the farm, newly made Camembert is being wrapped in wax paper and put into little, round wooden boxes. Durand says what he loves most about his craft is that he controls the process from beginning to end. But that’s also what makes it challenging.

‘The evolution of the cheese depends on outside conditions that you can not always control. And when you are working with the living, fragile product like raw milk, the challenge and difficulty is to always keep the same quality.’

Durand says his children are not interested in cheese-making and he is not sure he’ll be able to find someone to take over the business. If he fails, the village of Camembert may no longer have its own cheese maker.

For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley .

1 patchwork   

n.混杂物；拼缝物

参考例句：

• That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
• She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。

2 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

3 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

4 vats   

varieties 变化，多样性，种类

参考例句：

• Fixed rare issue with getting stuck in VATS mode. 修正了极少出现的VATS模式卡住的问题。
• Objective To summarize the experience of VATS clinic application. 目的总结电视胸腔镜手术(vats)胸外科疾病治疗中的临床应用经验。

5 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

6 enzyme   

n.酵素，酶

参考例句：

• Above a certain temperature,the enzyme molecule will become unfolded.超过一定温度，酶分子将会展开。
• An enzyme that dissolves the fibrin of blood clots.能溶解血凝块中的纤维的酶。

7 calves   

n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解

参考例句：

• a cow suckling her calves 给小牛吃奶的母牛
• The calves are grazed intensively during their first season. 小牛在生长的第一季里集中喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 curdles   

v.（使）凝结( curdle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Everything curdles when you touch it. 什么事情只要自己一沾手，就会毛病百出。 来自辞典例句
• Milk curdles when kept too long. 牛奶放置太久会凝结。 来自辞典例句

9 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。

11 curdled   

v.（使）凝结( curdle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The milk has curdled. 牛奶凝结了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Terror curdled his blood. 恐惧使他心惊胆颤。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

13 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

14 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。