The article details the meticulous process of making Gruyère cheese in Fribourg, Switzerland, highlighting the unique methods employed by cheesemaker Nicolas Schmoutz. This includes cutting curds, pressing them into molds, and maintaining a salt bath that attracts essential microbes for flavor development. The sourcing of milk from local farmers within 12.4 miles is crucial to ensure quality, particularly during the calving season when cows are nurtured before grazing in biodiverse mountain pastures, contributing to the cheese's distinctive taste.
Once the curd is finely diced, Schmoutz pumps the vat's contents into round molds, which are pressed by hydraulic force, whey streaming out.
There are microbes in there we need for the rind and the taste. This dairy is 15 years old, and the bath water has never been changed.
It's not one thing that accounts for the quality of the milk, but all of them. In the mountains, there is no cultivated grass, just a biodiversity of wild plants.
For farmers, this is a busy time of year. It is calving season. A cow gives birth in a straw-covered stall in his cavernous barn.
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