Know Your Swiss Cheeses

Cheese lovers often underestimate—and underbuy—Swiss cheese. In recent years, the range of Swiss cheeses available to American shoppers has broadened dramatically.

To experience the best Switzerland has to offer, look for the word alpage (alpine), which applies only to cheeses made in an alp during the cows’ annual trek from the valley floor into the mountains. The cows’ rich pasture diet gives these summer-made mountain wheels exceptional flavor. Alpage cheeses are more golden in color, more tender and creamy, and show more depth than those made with winter milk. Alpage cheeses include Appenzeller, Vacherin Fribourgeois and Sbrinz. Only an estimated 15 percent of Swiss production is alpage.

Rolf Beeler, the celebrated Swiss affineur, has been instrumental in nurturing artisan cheesemaking in his country by seeking out vanishing products like raw-milk Appenzeller and Raclette and small-production Sbrinz. Obscure Swiss cheeses like Fösterkäse, Beeler’s Napfkäse and soft-ripened cheeses such as Selun and Senne-flada, are piquing shoppers’ interests. Consolidation in the Swiss cheese industry, which put many small Emmental makers out of work, has paradoxically led to a revitalization in artisan cheesemaking (many had the milk and needed to start producing something other than Emmental so they started making new cheeses or using old recipes).

A Glossary of Swiss Cheeses

APPENZELLER: More piquant than Gruyere, with roasted hazelnut and barnyard aromas. Aged a minimum of three months, but tastier with six to nine months of age (and labeled “extra”). The cheese is rubbed during aging with an herbal brine.

GRUYÈRE: Weighing roughly 70 pounds, wheels are made with whole raw cow’s milk and matured at least five months. Gruyère Réserve is at least a year old. Melts better than Emmental because it is higher in fat.

EMMENTAL: Made from partly skimmed raw milk; matured at least four months, but improves with extra aging. Rolf Beeler’s Emmental receives at least 12 months of age. Wheels are 175 to 200 pounds with pea-sized holes.

L’ETIVAZ: Switzerland’s first AOC (appellation d’origine controlée) cheese is made with raw milk and resembles Gruyère but with more concentrated aroma and flavor.

HOCH YBRIG: A raw-milk mountain cheese resembling Gruyère but much smaller (about 15 pounds). Made by a single dairy and matured for eight months to one year by Rolf Beeler.

NAPFKÄSE: Resembling Appenzeller in shape and size, Napfkäse has pea-sized eyes, a peanutty aroma and a silky texture. Another Beeler selection.

RACLETTE: Popular as a melting cheese but a superb table cheese, too; both Beeler and importer Larry Lukas offer a raw-milk version. Typically aged three to four months, it is smooth and creamy, with a beefy, meat-locker aroma.

SBRINZ: “Switzerland’s Parmesan” is eaten as a table cheese when young (and is shaved paper thin for serving) or as a grating cheese when mature. Made with whole raw cow’s milk, the 80-pound wheels can be matured for three years or more.

TETE DE MOINE: This raw-milk mountain cheese is small (under 5 pounds); matured a minimum of 75 days. In the traditional presentation, the top is sliced off and the cheese is shaved horizontally with a device called a girolle.

UNTERWASSER: Typical Swiss mountain cheese weighing about 15 pounds and aged up to 1 year. It is similar to Gruyère but a little nuttier and sweeter.

VACHERIN FRIBOURGEOIS: Creamier than Gruyère but with a similar aroma and flavor, it melts well for fondue. Lukas offers an alpage version. Wheels weigh about 15 pounds. —Janet Fletcher and Vanessa Facenda

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