Maighread on a visit to the Gruyère maturing house (outfit models own)

It takes about 12 litres of milk to make 1 kilo of Gruyère.
Milk from the night milking and that of the morning  milking are put into a copper lined vat and a cultured starter is added.
Rennet is added and the milk is left to sit for between 35-40 mins.
The milk is now formed into curd, and this is cut with a cheese ‘harp’ so that the curd is in small pieces about the size of a grain of wheat. (This takes about 10 mins).
You now have a mixture of curds and whey – which are heated slowly to about 55 C.  (This takes about 40-45 mins)
The curds are now taken out of the vat and put into moulds.
The newly moulded cheeses are then put into a press for 24 hours and have between 300 and 900 kilograms of pressure applied.
Finally the cheese is put into a salt brine bath.
After brining the cheese transferred to a maturation room which is between 12-14 C, and the cheeses are initially ‘washed’ with a salt water solution and turned everyday.

Cheeses

We have the following cheeses:

Gruyere Vieux, Gruyere Alpage, Emmentaler 10 and 17mth, L'Etivaz, Sbrinz, Bergblumenchas, Andeerer Bergkase, St Galler Berghof, Raclette Berghof, Alp Raclette, Jura Erguel, Rubloz, Le Sousbois, Tomme Fleurette, Unterwasser.......some are seasonal so not all cheeses are available all year round.

New Arrival

Secret du Fort 

From the producer of the famous Tomme Fleurette we have a new  cheese made in the style of Gruyere, only smaller (about 15 kgs in weight as opposed to 35kgs of Gruyere). At the moment they are about 12 months old and the flavour has a delicate, milky, sweetness - a product of the pastures that the cows are eating. The cheesemaker matures it himself in his nearby cave.  It is a great cheese that we are very happy to have in stock, and we like the fact that we can sell it at a good price that makes it available to everyone as a good 'store cupboard' cheese.

Jura Montagne

As the name indicates, the “Montagne du Jura” is a cheese produced in the Swiss Jura region, a high plateau of moderate hills next to the French border that used to be covered by water. This makes the region very different from all other Swiss “Terroir” as the soil’s main component is limestone.

In this team from the dairy in St. Imier we have found a very innovative and cheesemaker. Tête de Moine AOC is by far the biggest volume they produce but also Gruyère AOC and other specialities such as Jura Montagne, are on the dairy’s list.

The “Jura Montagne” might be considered an answer to the regulation of the board on Gruyère AOC and the costs of contribution to this organization when producing Gruyere.

Our little Jura Gruyère, the “Jura Montagne” shows some similarities to the Gruyère in its making. But the small holes, the sweetness and the fruity flavour make the cheese quite different from a Gruyère.

Double Cream Bergkase is back...

Arriving around September is the double cream Bergkase we started with 2 years ago. I have reserved an ongoing amount from the cheesemaker from this summers production to be matured for us so hopefully this year we will have plenty to sell.

Etivaz

We have selected a producer from Etivaz to supply us with cheese after a visit to the maturing rooms of Etivaz in mid May to taste through cheeses from a range of cheesemakers.  Update: We now have the summer 2010 cheeses. Still from the same cheesemaker as the past 3 years, and the flavour is lovely. They are quite young but it is nice to have them like this at the beginning of the season.

Gruyère Alpage

We have a few 2009 cheeses left but are selling mostly the 2010 summer production now..

The cheeses were made in the pre-alpes of the Fribourg region, which are at over 1200m.
It's not just a cheese but near to an art-work.  In the small chalets every cheesemaker produces just 2-3 cheeses per day.  The reason for the difference in flavours from other Gruyère are the pastures in the mountains of the Fribourg area, the making over an open wooden fire, the location of the cheesemakers living quarters close to the cows, and of course the passion of the cheesemakers themselves. 

We select from the production of two different cheesemakers.

Fondue Vite

Fondue Vite is just a combination of cheese, wine, and kirsch in one bag, - so you can just pour it into your Fondue pot and then start heating and stirring, (It doesn't exactly pour because it's bit chunky!).  We have just taken away the need to grate your own cheese and work out the right combination of wine/kirsch/cheese.

It's quite common in Switzerland, and there is even some being sold in England but we have ensured that we have used very good quality cheese (and lots of it), and nothing extra in terms of preservatives or additives.

Konrad, from Chas & Co - Zurich, says our Fondue Vite compares to normal 'ready made' fondue, as Caviar compares to plain fish eggs.

I will put up some photos of it soon...

Thanks also to Jonathon Hares for the design of the label.