May: All About Gruyere!
This month we’re taking a deep dive into an icon of cheese making, Gruyere, an alpine, hard cooked, raw milk, cows cheese from Fribourg in Switzerland. More than a Swiss Cheese, this is the Swiss Cheese, often imitated, although never bettered.
Master Cheesemakers in Switzerland begin their apprenticeship after completing their high school education. To become a Master Cheesemaker takes 13 years of study, craft, labour and learning, the longest apprenticeship in cheesemaking. Every step of the process is studied, picked apart, learned, relearned and practised. Master cheesemakers know their product intimately and graduate with the foundations of how to successfully operate a cheesemaking facility.
Needless to say, the Swiss take the making of this 900 year old artform very seriously.
According to the appellation control AOP rules around Gruyere production there are nine key steps involved in the cheese making process.
The highest quality raw milk, sourced from cows grazed on lush, green pastures in the Summer and fresh hay, specially dried to maintain its nutrition profile.
Copper wats receive the milk directly from the farmer, the lactic fermentation process and rennet are added to the raw milk, coagulation begins. Not heating the milk of pasteurising at this stage allows all of the character of the milk to remain suspended.
Curds are cut, the whey is drained away and the heating of the curds in a gentle process begins.
Curds are packed into hoops, a disc containing the name of the dairy and the date of manufacture is pressed into the rind, cheese is then pressed for up to 20 hours.
A brine bath awaits the cheese at this point, the 36 - 37 kg wheels bob around in a briney soup of natural bacteria giving the cheese its distinct flavours
Cheeses start their maturation journey at the cheesemaker’s facility. During the first three months of maturation the cheeses must be turned and washed almost daily to create the rind that both protects the cheese and creates the flavour.
At five months, the association of Gruyere cheesemakers tests the wheel, ensuring that it meets the standards of the AOP designation. From here on in the cheese can legally be recognised as Gruyere.
Wheels are then sold to Affineurs, the masters of ageing cheese, they buy the cheeses for all intents and purposes en premier, speculating that through further careful ageing the cheeses will improve and increase in value.
Younger cheeses, at nine, to ten, months of age are often cut, wrapped and sold to supermarkets for mass market consumption where the cheese is valued for its mild character.
Wheels that will tolerate further maturation, up to 24 months in some cases, are cellared, washed, turned and stored in perfect conditions in order to enhance their flavour. The more mature wheels are what cheesemongers really want.
At 18 to 24 months, most wheels of Gruyere head to various distribution houses for sale. Our wheels are consolidated at Rungis Market in Paris before being surface freighted to Australia in a specialist refrigerated container. The journey takes approximately 35 days after which the cheese clears biosecurity and is ready for sale in our domestic market.
Taste By Age
Young Gruyere (nine months, fresh from the wheel) is excellent cheese, it retains an elasticity, mild creamy flavours and a lingering character. The perfect cheese for a toastie or French Onion Soup.
12 Month Gruyere is where the cheese can really take its place on a cheese plate, the character of the cheese improves considerably in the ensuing three months since we last tasted it, the savoury notes are deepening, hints of the lush green grass and clean milk flavours yield and become more floral, nutty with free fatty acids giving the cheese a buttery mouthfeel.
Eighteen month Gruyere, in this Cheesemonger's opinion, is the sweet spot for Gruyere. The flavours have intensified, the cheese is now ready for a bold, ‘later-in-the-evening’ cheese plate. Ready to stand toe to toe with red wines you would typically drink with gamey meats, Pinot Noir and Shiraz are now in play. The concentration of flavours, proteins and fats now exhibits tyrosine crystals, or those delightful little pop rocks for grown ups. Burnt butter and sage flavours become more pronounced, the cheese is now a five mile cheese, you will be tasting this one for a while.