by Austin Coe Butler
When we think of Swiss cheese in the United States, we might think of a pale, thin slice of cheese with holes in it that tastes like plastic and is not that dissimilar from its parody on the receiving end of a mousetrap. We might also think of a bubbling pot of fondue or blistered raclette. We might even be able to name one cheese, Gruyère. This is the sum total of Swiss cheese for most Americans. The Swiss, though, have an august tradition of making a rich diversity of cheeses that rivals that of the French and were it not for the actions of a nefarious cheese cartel our associations with Swiss cheese would be much more bountiful.
The stark geography of the grand and imposing Swiss Alps led to the creation of hundreds of distinct, regional cheeses. Many of these traditional cheeses fall under the category of “Alpine” or cooked, pressed cheeses. The harsh winters and relative isolation of settlements required farmers to band together and pool their milk to create huge wheels of Gruyère, Emmental, and Sbrinz that could be eaten throughout the winter. During the Alpine cheesemaking process, the curd is cooked at a high temperature and cut finely to the size of a pea to drive more liquid whey out of the curd. Then the curd is pressed into moulds to drive even more whey out. Cheeses with high moisture in them spoil quickly and large cheeses especially can rot from the inside, bulge with gas, and then “heave” or explode! Some Swiss cheesemakers mastered this art though, as in Emmental or “Swiss,” which has a distinct bulge in its wheel and large holes or eyes from the gas produced by a specific bacteria, Proprionibacteria.
Another unique feature of Swiss cheese is the access to incredible mountain pastures in the summer. High on the mountainsides, when the snow has melted, vibrant meadows become accessible. Owing to a scarcity of farmland, shepherds took their flocks from the valleys onto the mountainsides to forage these wild, mountain pastures comprised of herbs, wildflowers, and grasses and found they produced some of the finest milk, butter, and cheese. This act of transhumance, the high altitude meadows, and the composition of pasture, all came to be known as Alpage.
The isolation of each each Alp or Alpage ensures that they have their own unique style of cheese with its own terroir. Speaking about terroir and cheese may sound farcical to some, but cheese is an incredibly dynamic food. We once carried two wheels of Gruyère Alpage from opposite sides of the same valley and the difference in flavor between them left some incredulous: one was deeply savory, like sugar cured bacon and caramelized onions, while the other was delicate in flavor, with a fruitiness and subtle tang like a fine alpine strawberry.
How then did this incredible tradition and regional diversity of cheese become so debased? The Schweizerei Käseunion (Swiss Cheese Union). Many refer to it as the Swiss Cheese Cartel because it operated like a cartel. It exerted total control over every facet of cheese production in Switzerland from marketing at home and abroad to quality control enforcement and price regulation. They benefitted from keeping prices high and competition low, producing and promoting primarily Emmental, Gruyère, Sbrinz, and Appenzeller, while actively discouraging the production of other lesser known cheeses, let alone newly invented ones. They purposefully mislabeled lower quality cheeses bound for the export market to demand a higher price. The Swiss Cheese Cartel is responsible for our associations with Emmental as “Swiss” cheese, as they had large stockpile of old Emmental they needed to move and in turn led an aggressive marketing campaign of fondue in Switzerland as well as abroad. Melting cheese in a pot is a very old tradition for many people, but what we distinctly think of as “fondue” is also the confabulation of the Swiss Cheese Union. (The proliferation of the term fondue also led to the creation of chocolate fondue which was made to sell, surprise, a Swiss chocolate, Toblerone.)
In 1999, though, the Swiss Cheese Cartel buckled under a corruption scandal and Swiss cheesemakers were free to return to their traditional cheeses and innovate new ones. Independent cheese makers like Walter Räss, Jumi, the Tschudi family, and importers like Caroline Hofstettler through her program Adopt an Alp, are all doing their part to restore and preserve the vibrant tradition of cheesemaking in Switzerland.
What better weekend to celebrate Swiss cheese than one where we’re buried in so much snow it feels like we’re on an Alp? Strap on your snowshoes and trudge into the shop this week to try some fabulous Swiss cheese, all 15% off through Sunday!