Cheese of the Month - Alpine

We continue our Monthly Cheese Class with Alpine cheese, which comes from…you guessed it, the Alps! Which means they’re not just Swiss cheeses, but also French cheeses and Italian cheeses, from the mountainous region that connects the three countries. But mostly Swiss.

While every cheese has a terrior — "from the land" — component, Alpine cheese..

Wait, let’s back up. Terrior is a French word that connects the land to the agricultural product growing on that land. It refers to how a specific area, with a unique soil type and climate and geography and farming tradition, impacts the flavor of what's grown there. Usually terrior is applied to grapes and the wine made from those grapes, but it can also be used to describe coffee, chile peppers, chocolate, and cheese. Well, the land grows the grass, and the cows eat the grass and then produce the milk that makes the cheese.

That might sound like it’s a few too many steps removed to really make a difference, but it truly does. And if you don’t believe that, ask a Swiss cheese maker. Because they’ll tell you (probably in French) about the wildflowers and grasses that grow in the mountain meadows, and how that impacts the cheese made from the milk of the cows that graze there.

And if you don’t believe that, try a piece of Swiss cheese.

No, not that Swiss cheese. Not the one with the big holes in it and the supermarket name on the package. It might be labeled “Swiss” but it wasn’t made in Switzerland, and it certainly doesn’t have any terrior.

Funny story: those holes, or "eyes," that we think characterizes Swiss cheese, well, they come from bubbles of carbon dioxide released by the cheese cultures as they do their work turning milk into cheese. And back in the day, those holes were viewed as imperfections, and cheesemakers squeezed the cheese extra hard to try to get rid of them. In Alpine cheeses, the cheesemaking process has evolved to mostly eliminate the holes, while here in the US we’ve come to expect those holes, so they need to be added by other means.

Anyway, Alpine cheeses are hard or semi-hard, with a natural rind, made from cow’s milk, and have a fruity, toasty, nutty flavor. Gruyère — quintessential fondue cheese — epitomizes terrior, because when you first cut into it you can almost smell those meadow flowers. Emmental cheese can trace its lineage back to the 13th century, and is sweeter than Gruyère — this is the cheese that sometimes has eyes, on which “American-Swiss” cheese is based. (Loosely, if you ask us.) And raclette — from the French word racler, meaning “to scrape” — is sublime when you hold it next to a grill and scrape (see what they did there?) the melted cheese onto boiled or roasted potatoes.

Alpine cheeses are still critical components of the regional economy, and have been for a while. Hundreds of years ago, cheese was used as currency there, and today the Swiss government still sets the market price for milk and the cheese made from it.

And we’ll just enjoy eating it.