Oh my yes I eat it. I almost prefer it to the flesh of the cheese.
Aesiron, I’ll happily take off your hands any brie rind you have:)
I eat it… but I often take the entire thing, make a flaky, buttery, cream cheesy crust and bake it… and just eat it. Sometimes I’ll eat it with crackers or apples, but I often just eat it in the crust (complete with rind).
Also, for posterity, and to back up Aesiron, I’ve given brie to my brother, two ex boyfriends, and my mother, and they have all said they found the rind to taste and feel “waxy” or “wax-like”. I never told them if they should or shouldn’t eat it, I just served it to them. I then served it to them in the crust and they didn’t seem to notice it, but it’s all melted together anyway. I always bought it fresh from a specialty cheese shop, so the rind was a wonderful creamy white, plump and kind of… springy when you touch it. So it was good cheese. 
(Oh, God it was good cheese!)
Whoa. This is the thread that I meant to start (but forgot) as I was having a wedge of brie just two days ago.
I had looked online to confirm my suspicion that the rind was edible—however, with me, edible is often a relative term. I found that I could only try in vain to eat the rind; it tasted like fungus, and the wonderful taste of the brie sans rind settled the deal with me. It’s quite a trick to pare, though.
Coincidentally enough, I had some brie last night, and yes I did eat the rind. Sometimes I don’t; it depends on how hard it is.
I don’t like brie that much. I eat it with the rind, though. And I dond’t remember ever having a brie with a rind feeling or tasting like wax, even remotely.
Good Bries like the Aussie Jindi Brie, winner of World’s Best Cheese, have light fluffy moulds which I normally eat. I have bought reduced price cheeses past their use by date and scooped out the runny centre to use as a dip with fruit pieces.
I googled Jindi Brie and found many sites singing praise for the cheese, but no info on availibility in the US. Do you know if they export here, and if it can be bought online?
Peace,
mangeorge
Today I went to a farmer’s organic market, and, in addition to what I already had in the fridge, now have four or five varieties of fresh, ripe, liquifying French soft cheeses (as well as several blues and some hard Irish goat’s cheese). All have rinds, and the rinds are delicious on all.
The exception to this would be the story my dad told about the cheese with the black crunchy rind that he used to eat in the 1960s. Eventually he went to France on holiday, and went to where this particular cheese was made. The rind was the regular kind, but covered with grape seeds, which then grew a black mold on them. These grape seeds were the ones that were spat into a bucket during the day by the farm workers. Eugh.
(I do also have to admit to being mystified by the ‘waxy’ description. I’ve been eating Brie, Camembert, Pont L’Eveque, etc. for twenty years, and have never once experienced a waxiness on the rind of any soft French cheese. Perhaps, though, Aesiron has a different definition of ‘waxy’ to othe people.)
Again, I asked my wife about this (her family imports the largest selection of cheeses in the U.S.; over 2500 different kinds) and she said that she has heard of it once or twice but they don’t import it for sale (they sell to stores all over the U.S.). Cheese and other dairy products generally require a license to import and subject to FDA inspection upon arrival so I don’t think you will be able to buy it on your own. Based on that information, I won’t say that it is impossible that someone else is importing it but very unlikely.
Thanks, Shagnasty. I did remember about your wife’s expertise, but not about her family importing cheeses.
All this talk has made me crave, so I’m going to forget that stuff in my fridge and go to the local cheesemonger (at a supermarket) and get some good stuff. Then I’ll swing by Acme bakery and get a sourdough baguette.
Perhaps this is a hijack, but does anyone agree with me that soft cheeses should be kept out of the fridge for full ripeness?
The reason I don’t currently follow this practice is because my wife would divorce me if I didn’t, due to their pungency. 
I fully agree that serving them at freezing point ruins them. It’s also true that serving red wine at 18c makes it tasteless. You need a true old-fashioned larder. Or cellar. Or my house…(well, at least this evening 
) …
Come to think of it, a nice cool (but not icy) Guinness might go pretty well with that brie and baguette.
Mmm…brie. I eat the rind most of the time unless it’s too strong-tasting. Brie and grapes!! I want some brie and grapes!
I love the rind on Brie but then I ate the rind on a very good Port Salut tonight and that is waxy.
OK dude let’s get into International cheese smuggling. Email me an address and I will send some Aussie cheeses your way - the Jindi Brie, maybe the King Island Lighthouse Blue Brie, and the King Island Roaring Forties Blue, what about Tilba Trilogy aged cheddar. Unfortunately Pyengana Nalya cheddar is no longer available because of government regulations requiring the use of pasteurised milk.
As a kid I wouldn’t touch the rind. But I have matured and now enjoy it along with the rest of the brie.
Shagnasty, Do you have any cheesy book recommendations? I would love to read up on this.
Yes, there is a fairly good one. It is The Cheese Primer by Steve Jenkins. MY wife and father-in-law consulted on it and Steve is known as another good expert in the field. My wife ships the book to customers all over the country to people that are trying to start up a cheese business so that they can have a good knowledge foundation. It is good for consumers too and also a fairly easy read. If you want one, that is probably the one to start off with.
Now that we have the brie-rind issue solved. (eat)
Do you eat the rind on camembert?
My French brother-in-law says, “Non”.
But, that’s the unpasteurized camembert that you get in France. I don’t know if it makes a difference.