When it comes to cheese, many people may first think of France. French cheese claims that you can eat one kind every day and don't duplicate it in a year. In fact, your initial understanding of cheese probably comes from France's neighbor Switzerland, which is also a big cheese country. Here is why there are holes in the cheese I collected for you, but some don't. I hope I can help you.
01 Emmenthal
/ not all cheeses have holes/
The cartoon "cat and mouse" let many Chinese children know a kind of food called cheese. So that people's impression of cheese is that there are holes, and the holes are connected with each other, which can be drilled by mice. But in fact, this is not the case. The cheese that is full of holes in the animation is called Emmental.
Ementhal is a valley in central Switzerland, where a unique hard cheese (cheese can be divided into soft, semi soft, semi hard and hard according to the decreasing water content) is produced. It is named ementhal. There are many kinds of hard cheese, but only Emmenthal has holes. This kind of hole is the masterpiece of Propionibacterium fischeri. When cheese is fermented, they produce a large amount of carbon dioxide and form spherical holes from the inside, which are not connected with each other.
Due to the removal of a lot of water, the yield of hard cheese is very low. Only a dozen kilograms of milk can make a kilogram of cheese. The complete Emmenthal cheese is almost one meter in diameter and weighs about 90 kilograms. The raw material needs a ton of milk.
As for the taste, the biggest feature of Emmenthal cheese is the nut flavor similar to hazelnut. It is a little hard to eat raw, but it is different to make cheese hotpot. This cheese hotpot can be said to be the national dish of Switzerland. Those who like it love it very much, while those who don't like it think it smells fishy. Some Western restaurants in China will provide an improved version of cheese hotpot, which is served in a small pot with cheese soup dipped in various ingredients. In fact, the original version in Switzerland is not like this at all.
In Switzerland, although there are some variants of cheese hotpot, the main body of the bottom of the pot is melted cheese. The classic cheese hotpot is first coated with garlic in a small pot, and then poured in a little white wine with starch, just like our fried vegetable pan. Then put the cheese into the pot to melt. There are many kinds of cheese that can be used, and Emmenthal cheese is one of them.
After the cheese melts in the pot, it will become thick and silky. Put a small fork into the bread block and dip it in a layer of cheese. Take it out immediately and eat it while it is hot. The semi-solid cheese will show a flexible taste and mellow fragrance. At the end of the meal, a layer of cheese at the bottom of the pot will turn into a scorched hard shell, like a pot of rice and biscuits. When many people eat cheese hotpot, they wait for the last layer.
02 dispute over the same name
Switzerland is a mountainous country, with many high-quality alpine pastures and high-quality cheese. However, there are two kinds of cheese. One is called Alpine cheese, which refers to the cheese made from summer milk in alpine pastures; Another kind is called mountain cheese, which refers to cheese produced in all seasons in modern pastures.
Mountain cheese is produced in the mountainous town of gruy è re in western Switzerland. The name of cheese is naturally called gruy è re. Gruyere cheese looks very much like Emmenthal cheese without holes, with strong and rich flavor. Switzerland's famous cheese hotpot called "MOITI é - MOITI é" (meaning "half and half") is made of half Gruyere cheese and half vacherin fribourgeois.
Interestingly, there is also a small town in France called Gruyere, which also produces cheese. The two countries competed for a long time, and finally Switzerland won. In 2001, it successfully applied for trademark protection in the EU. Therefore, only locally produced Gruyere in Switzerland can be called Gruyere cheese in the world. There is a trademark under each piece of cheese, which can be traced back to the farmers who provide milk and even the cows who produce milk.
Not far from Gruyere, there is a village called l'etivaz, which also produces Alpine cheese, which is very similar to the traditional Gruyere cheese. I had the honor to visit letiva's cheese factory. As soon as I entered the house, I smelled the pungent smell of ammonia, which is proof that the cheese is fermenting. Microorganisms decompose part of the protein in milk, and the products are ammonia and delicious amino acids. This kind of mountain cheese has been stored for two or three years. During this period, the cheese should be turned over regularly and sprayed with salt water. When it is finally completed, a lot of salt has accumulated in the cheese, which tastes like fermented bean curd with milk flavor.
In the days when France and Britain fell in love and killed each other, the front-line army consumed a lot of cheese, so they imported a lot from Switzerland. Letiva and Gruyere, which are close to France, have received a lot of cheese orders. The final result is that local dairy farmers are not willing to eat their own cheese, but sell them all to France to earn money to support their families.
03 different ways to eat Swiss cheese
Appenzeller in northern Switzerland produces the cheese with the strongest flavor in Switzerland. Like many other cheeses, Appenzeller cheese also needs to be brushed with salt water during storage, but it uses salt water with spices, and the specific formula is confidential. Anyway, the final product is a golden hard cheese.
Valle is a large state in the south of Switzerland. The Alps run across it. There is a unique cheese eating method called raclette. Light a bonfire and bake the local cheese of the same name on the edge of the fire. When it is soft, scrape it off with a knife and eat it with potatoes. It must be hot and hard when it is cold. Now many restaurants can't light an open fire, so they set up an electric grill on the table to bake.
This kind of eating method takes a long time and can eat for several hours at a meal. It is said that it was invented by former herdsmen. When they go up the mountain to herd cattle, they will carry cheese with them. When they are free at night, they will light a fire and roast it, fill their stomachs and relieve their boredom. The local saying in Switzerland is that raclette should be accompanied by wine. It is said that drinking other drinks will cause indigestion. I tried. In fact, everything they drink is the same. They just find a way to drink.
However, cheese concentrates a lot of protein and fat, which is really slow to digest. As the saying goes, "when you eat it", it's not easy to be hungry. But correspondingly, cheese is also very high in calories. For example, after eating all kinds of cheese in Switzerland for ten days, I immediately gained two kilograms.