Posted on 09/05/2023 7:39:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
"Swiss cheese" with its iconic holes is known throughout the world, but true Emmentaler is a handcrafted, carefully controlled product.
Switzerland is a nation of cheese. With a population of just under nine million, it produces 207,000 tons a year – and of the more than 450 kinds of cheese produced, there's one that's known as the "king of cheese", a food so famous it has become synonymous with the country itself. That cheese, of course, is Emmentaler – or "Swiss cheese", as it's known in North America.
It's hard not to overstate Emmentaler's ubiquity. Along with Swiss army knives, cuckoo clocks and cowbells, the cheese with holes is one of Switzerland's most immediately recognisable symbols. Souvenir shops sell Emmentaler-shaped key rings and Emmentaler-inspired socks. For six years, the speed suits of the Swiss ski team looked like Emmentaler, earning international attention at the 1994 Olympic Games. The cheese's international fame even starts in childhood: from the The Very Hungry Caterpillar book to the cartoon Peppa Pig, when there's cheese, it is yellow with holes.
It's also delicious and varied, its flavour changing with age. The youngest versions, which in Switzerland are aged for just four months, taste nutty and sweet with a mild flavour. As the cheese ages, it takes on an intense, almost spicy flavour, along with the aroma of herbs or hay.
Despite that, few people really know what many would consider to be Switzerland's most famous cheese. That's because the majority of "Swiss cheese" consumed outside the country isn't "true" Emmentaler – according, at least, to Emmentaler Switzerland, the Swiss association of Emmentaler producers. It's an imitation – usually one made industrially, outside of the Emmental region, and in a process that has little in common with the handcrafted, carefully controlled cheesemaking of Emmentaler AOP (Appellation d'Origine
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Monti Python’s cheese shop was out of it.
I love Emmentaler.
I often grate it to use with sautéed shallots and mushrooms with fresh French tarragon in scrambled eggs or an omelet.
It’s a keeper recipe. Don’t overdo the mushrooms, but add as many sliced shallots as seem to fit your purpose. I usually use one medium-to-large sized shallot for 2 eggs.
Add the freshly snipped tarragon and the olive oil to the whole thing you want to make.
Wisconsin has different ideas!
Never have forgotten that skit, never looked at cheese displays and not thought of it. A true classic in comedy.
Mein Brüter, Er wohnt in der Schweiz
Er hat es gar fein
Er macht in der Käse
die Locher herein.
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