“RARE" CHEESE

Evening Star, Issue 19783, 6 February 1928, Page 8

“RARE" CHEESE

THE MAKING OF GRUYERE. How do they put the holes into Swiss cheese? Everybody, of course, knows the music-hall joke about the old woman with one tooth who is supposed to work overtime at the job; but probably not two persons in a hundred have ever heard the truth about tho little mystery. Some people have a vague idea that the holes are deliberately created to fill Up space; others maintain that they are only inserted for purposes of decoration. Both, however, are a very long way from the truth (writes Robert Scott, in the Newcastle 1 Weekly Chronicle’). Gruycro cheese, or, to be more accurate, Emmenthalcr, would bo just about as palatable without holes as, say, lager beer without froth. Holes are the hallmark of quality, and tho bigger the holes the bettor the cheese. In fact, the cheese with these mysterious cavities are so much in demand in America that experts are hard at work “trying to find a formula,” as they say at the League of Nations, for'making the holes larger and more numerous. It has been said that Swiss cheese is preferred in America because it is so largely used for making sandwiches, and the holes sell just as well as the cheese for this purpose. But every ehcese-cater in America knows perfectly well that it is not the holes they cherish, but the rich, nutty flavor which their presence denotes, and which has made Emmeuthaler famous all over tho world. The merit of Emmonthalor is duo to a very small cause with a very big effect, a tiny microbe which is responsible for the fermentation of the milk before it turns into cheese. With the aid of this benevolent germ the acid salts in the milk are converted into carbonic acid gas, which, during the process of manufacture, produces bubbles of different sizes. As the mass cools these gradually evaporate, leaving tho cheese pitted with holes. Switzerland produces about £5,000,000 worth of cheese every year, her chief rival being tho United* States, where the manufacture of Emmeuthaler is said to have reached a high standard. After a few years of research Michigan experts claim to have discovered a process whereby it is now possible to control the size of the holes and market high-grade Emmenthaler at lOd a pund. This threat to one of their staple industries has not unduly perturbed the Swiss. Anyone can put holes in cheese, they reply, but not all the dollar bills ever printed can produce the aromatic alpine fodder on which Swiss cattle are fed. A good story is told about a distinguished foreigner who was being shown over one of the largest dairy farms in the Emmenthal. For , a time he watched tho bubbling cauldrons in, silence; then, turning to the dairyman, he asked, “ And how do you put the big holes in the cheese afterwards?” “Oh! that’s very simple,” said the farmer. “You just take a hole and put a lot of cheese round it.”