In the world there are many types of cheese -more than 2,000 varieties in fact-. Goat, cow, sheep, mixed, hard, soft, to eat raw, to melt, more or less cured… the truth is that both in Spain and outside our borders, cheese is a most popular ingredientand although it is clear that we cannot know all the types that exist around the world, it is possible that some you know are not really what you think.
Surely on more than one occasion you have also heard or even used the expression of “this has more holes than a Gruyère” weighing in that Swiss cheese with a yellowish and semi-hard paste that is characterized by having large holes inside. Well, what if we told you that that It is not Gruyére but Emmentaler cheese?
Both Emmentaler cheese and Gruyère cheese are two varieties of Swiss origin which are made with cow’s milk, although at first glance they are easily distinguishable since one has holes and the other does not. What has led us to think that Gruyère is the cheese of the holes and not Emmentaler?
A bad translation in Heidi
For many generations Heidi was the reference cartoon. This children’s animated series released in 1974 inspired by the book by the writer Johanna Spyri It took place on a meadow in the mountains near the town of Maienfeld, in the canton of Graubünden, within the borders of Switzerland.
As explained by Cheeses of Switzerland, in Spain we have popularly tended to think that Gruyère cheese was the one with holes and not Emmentaler. due to a bad translation in Heidi. The image of this holey cheese was mistakenly dubbed in Spanish as Gruyére and not as Emmentaler, and while Heidi marked an entire generation, the misidentification of this cheese did so with her.
Two of the most traditional cheeses in Switzerland
You Gruyère AOP It is one of the most popular Swiss cheeses inside and outside the Alpine country. “This popular hard cheese is produced for several hundred years in the vicinity of the small town of Gruyères, in the canton of Fribourg, and is still produced today according to a traditional recipe in the village cheese factories of western Switzerland,” they say from Cheeses of Switzerland.
To make each wheel of this cheese – which weighs approximately 35 kilos – no less than 400 liters of raw milk fresh, they assure from this organization, where they confess that this cheese made from cows that only feed on pastures in summer and hay in winter cannot contain any additives.
For its part, Emmentaler AOP They claim that it is “the king of Swiss cheese.” The production of this cheese dates back to the 13th century and currently around 110 village cheese factories make this cheese from fresh, untreated milk from cows that eat grass and hay.
To make a kilo of Emmentaler AOP are required 12 liters of milkand the wheels usually have a weight between 75 and 120 kg and a diameter between 80 and 100 cm. There it is nothing.
