Swiss-type cheeses

[1] The best-known cheeses of the type, all made from cow's milk, include the Swiss Emmental, Gruyère and Appenzeller, as well as the French Beaufort and Comté (from the Jura Mountains, near the Alps).

Both countries have many other traditional varieties, as do the Alpine regions of Austria (Alpkäse) and Italy (Asiago and Montasio), though these have not achieved the same degree of intercontinental fame.

Technically, Swiss-type cheeses are "cooked", meaning made using thermophilic lactic fermentation starters, incubating the curd with a period at a high temperature of 45°C or more.

The general eating characteristics of the cheeses are a firm but still elastic texture, flavour that is not sharp, acidic or salty, but rather nutty and buttery.

[9] A number of traditional types have legally controlled standards, for example the Appellation d'origine protégée in Switzerland, often covering the permitted breeds of cow, pastures, location and method of making, period of maturation, as well as details of their food chemistry.

[16] These were generally regarded as a fault if they were large, until 19th-century makers of Emmental began to encourage them,[17] a brilliant stroke from the marketing point of view.

[19] According to the Historia Augusta, the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius fell ill and died in 161 after eating a large quantity of "Alpine cheese" ("cum Alpinum caseum in cena edisset avidius") at Lorium, near Rome.

Muri Abbey was founded in 1027 with a large donation of Alpine wilderness, which it settled by offering a starter pack of equipment and animals to peasant families.

Cheesemaking soon became an important part of the new local economy, with the tithe cheeses delivered to the abbey each Feast of Saint Andrew, on 30 November.

Typically, about a dozen households combined their herds for the summer season, appointing a head cowman, and constructing high chalets to make cheese in.

The Protestant Reformation, which swept Switzerland if not other Alpine regions, removed the monastic landlords, and also some restrictions on eating cheese during Lent (although these already did not apply north of the Alps).