While talking of cheese, the only one that cheese that comes to our mind is the Swiss cheese. But “fine” is the one you should indulge into. Though you may find this variety to be very expensive, it has the quality that is worth every penny you have spent on the Swiss cheese.
Basics Of Swiss Cheese
General any cheese having holes around it is referred as “swiss cheese” in United States. And it has become extremely common to attribute it to every thing around, for example “memory just like the swiss cheese”. In fact Swiss cheese is just the general name given to any cheese with hole around it. Swiss cheese can be produced anywhere be it, New Zealand, Australia, Canada or United States. For the matter of fact, currently the largest factory for making Swiss cheese in the world is at Ohio. Cheeses having holes are often simulating with the cheeses called as emmetal, which is made in Switzerland.
There are other types of holed cheese in Switzerland, such as Gruyre, but Emmetal is the most fine type of swiss cheese there is. Guyre is imitated a lot. The holes are much smaller, and much more evenly spaced in the cheese. It is also aged longer, often 10-12 months. It is made from a cow’s milk with a greater amount of fat, so it is a sweeter cheese. As a swiss cheese, it melts easily and can be used with almost any part of the menu – appetizer, entree, or dessert.
Another type is the Baby Swiss cheese though it is a fine cheese, it is prepared to abide by the rules and regulations of the government, which basically are based on the age factor of the cheese and the pasteurization of milk preceding the process of making cheese, and hence it is tricky to ascertain about its fineness. The holes as compared to the Swiss cheese are too small owing to the age limit. As far as the taste is concerned you can say it is milder and sweeter.
The making of the holes in the cheese is done by eh presence of bacteria that are implicated in the production of cheese. Now what the bacteria do is one of them eats up the byproduct of other bacteria, lactic acid, which in turn gives out carbon dioxide gas. Hence the gas then expands into bubbles that change into holes during the process of solidification of the cheese.
How can this process contribute in picking the best Swiss cheese?
A fine swiss cheese will have larger “eyes,” and a greater flavor. The stronger flavor is caused by the longer aging time and the higher temperature, and these also lead to larger holes in the swiss cheese.
In the United States, it can be hard to find a fine swiss cheese that is pre-sliced (our favorite way to buy cheese) because the cheese with the holes can catch in the slicing machinery and cost them time and money. Consequently, in the United States, the swiss cheese manufacturers usually make a swiss cheese – fine might even be on its label – that is less aged and has less flavor than an imported cheese.
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