5 places you'll probably like even though they're cheesy
Antje Binder / dbApril 7, 2016
European cheeses are often produced according to centuries-old traditions - and likely to be named after the place they come from. Export favorites have made their regions famous around the world.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P.Seeger
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5 places you'll probably like even though they're cheesy
European cheeses are often produced according to centuries-old traditions - and likely to be named after the place they come from. Export favorites have made their regions famous around the world.
Image: dreamer12 - Fotolia.com
Gouda
This cheese is sold all over the world, but its home is the town of Gouda in the southern Netherlands. Mentioned in writing as early as 1184, it's one of the oldest varieties of cheese in the world. The yellow-colored cheese tastes creamy when young, and more intense and aromatic after two years of ageing. The name Gouda has been a protected name since 2010.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Camembert
Legend has it that Marie Fontaine Harel, a farmer from the northern French village of Camembert, learned how to make this variety of cheese from a priest from the Brie area near Paris, also famous for its cheeses. When Napoleon III tasted the creamy soft cheese Marie produced, he liked it so much that he made sure it was always on his menu. "Camembert de Normandie" is a protected name, too.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/L.Halbauer
Edam
Another popular Dutch cheese, Edam, from the town of the same name, is traditionally sold in round wheels covered with shiny yellow or red paraffin wax. It was particularly popular for centuries because it didn't spoil as easily as other cheeses. Cut in thin slices, Edam cheese is a standard Dutch breakfast cheese. The town itself is near a dam on the river E - thus the name Edam.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Muncke
Emmental
An original Emmental cheese wheel is a real heavyweight: it has a diameter of about one meter (3.28 feet) and weighs about 100 kilos (220 llbs). No other Swiss cheese goes over the counter as much as this nutty-tasting medium-hard cheese. Full of holes, it's popular far beyond its home in the Emme River valley in the Swiss canton of Berne.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P.Seeger
Cheddar
Cheddar doesn't have the best of reputations, largely because it is copied vigorously all over the world - and is the cheese used to top cheeseburgers. But its history goes back to the 17th century in England, where the cheese was created in the southern village by the same name. Cheddar gets its typical bright orange color from the flavorless annatto seed.
Image: dreamer12 - Fotolia.com
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Germans eat more than 20 kilos (44 lbs) of cheese per person every year, which puts them among the top European cheese-eaters. Apart from Gouda and Camembert, Emmental cheese is a popular variety. It's named after its home, the Emmental valley, which is a hilly region in Switzerland's Berne midlands. For centuries, people there have been producing Emmental cheese, a virtual synonym for Swiss cheese: yellow, round and full of holes.
Size matters
Swiss Emmental cheese is famous for its holes. They are important for the brand, and proof of quality: the holes have to be about the size of a cherry, two to four centimeters (0.8 - 1.6 inches) in diameter, according to the "Emmentaler Switzerland" association. If the holes are too small, too big, or not round enough, that can be a sign the cheese isn't ageing properly. A well-ripened Emmental even has an additional seal of quality: Sometimes, there's a tiny droplet of sweet-salty water in the hole.
Bacteria in the milk create carbon dioxide in the maturing cheese, which is responsible for the holes - or so people thought for a long time. Until one day, dairies and cheese-lovers alike noticed that every year, there were fewer holes. Since an Emmental cheese without holes is unthinkable, scientists were under great pressure to come up with a solution to the "disappearing holes" problem.
That hidden little extra
They found it more or less by accident. Experiments showed that not only bacteria were responsible for the holes, but tiny particles of hay in the milk. This hay dust always used to be in the milk in the days when cows were milked in a traditional fashion. Today, dairy farms and milking machines are simply too clean - and so is the milk.
As a result, many Emmental cheese dairies add a sprinkling of hay dust to the raw milk to ensure the trademark holes. The name Emmental cheese isn't a registered trademark, so dairies all over the world produce cheeses they call Emmental, despite Swiss protests. While they're all bound to vary in taste, they will all have the characteristic holes.
