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Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

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Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#141

Post by aktuel »

mymacbook wrote: post #128
chris_va wrote: post #24

> Properly formed eyes are a mark of quality. Except when I asked someone who makes cheese in Switzerland, they told me almost the opposite (and mostly that they export the junk cheese to the US and keep the good stuff). As an aside, what are the odds this article was written by AI? It has that feel (minus random bolding and bullet points).

I don’t think this is true, wherever I’ve traveled the opposite has held - the finest materials are exported which is sad for the locals. Right away Wool stuck out as an example from Peru. I naively thought that going to Peru would guarantee me the finest wool at the best prices. Anyway I’d like to see some data that backs up the claim that junk Swiss cheese is exported to the US market successfully.

If you believe that price equals quality, the fact that Switzerland is an order of magnitude richer than Peru - and considerably richer than the US - might make all the difference.

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#142

Post by shermantanktop »

Maxion wrote: post #135
mattclarkdotnet wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In two minds as to your sarcasm level. Anyone who has eaten bacon in Denmark or Raclette in Switzerland or a fresh pasta sauce in Italy could testify that the best stays home

I am so confused as to why everyone is talking about Switzerland, the country, acting in unison when it comes to exports. That's not really how it works... Some Swiss companies are more export focused, others are more domestically focused. There's no single central agency that goes around the country and grades cheese manufacturers and creameries and forces some to export, and others to sell to local grocery store ch…

You sure about that? Swiss agriculture is tightly controlled.

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#143

Post by hulitu »

Insanity wrote: post #89
cm2012 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American suburbs tend to have excellent bread in middle class neighborhoods or higher. This isn't the 90s.

Honest question.. where? Most bread seems to be high in additives and promoted as a “healthy food”, like additional vitamines etc. And even when buying natural bread without these added “benefits”, it often has high levels of sodium (up to like 200mg per slice). Bread is one of the easiest, most plain things to make, yet finding high quality bread isn’t straightforward in the States. But I do really want to know whic…

> Bread is one of the easiest, most plain things to make, yet finding high quality bread isn’t straightforward in the States

Finding high quality bread isn’t straightforward anywhere in EU. It either has sugar or additives or it is cooked at a too low temperature to be useful.

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#144

Post by Loic »

shermantanktop wrote: post #137

> In the U.S., we call it “Swiss” cheese, while in Switzerland, it’s known as Emmental. What? I struggle to see how this sentence makes any sense. The two products can both have holes, I guess? But grocery store Swiss cheese in the US is a waxy bland cheese product with a slight tang, whereas Emmentaler is complex, funky and quite assertive by comparison. I doubt the fans of either product love the other.

Swiss like French have hundreds of different cheeses, so calling a specific cheese a Swiss cheese is like telling "Why does American car is powered by an electrical motor?", talking about a specific Tesla car while you have hundreds of other cars manufactured in the US.

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#145

Post by Ylpertnodi »

plorkyeran wrote: post #118
murukesh_s wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wondering why someone did not solve the problem already? Of all the countries in the world US is brimming with entrepreneurs who want to "solve" a consumer problem, and with modern population I assume there is enough demand on fresh/healthier products - why on earth someone wouldn't try to fix it there?

Solving the problem of european tourists being unable to figure out that they have to walk to the bakery section of the supermarket rather than the shelf-stable bread-like products section if they want something they consider bread does not sound like much of a business opportunity.

>Solving the problem of european tourists being unable to figure out that they have to walk to the bakery section of the supermarket rather than the shelf-stable bread-like products section if they want something they consider bread

Every supermarket I can locally go to has a bread-on- the shelf section, as well as a very fresh bread section. Not to mention 'bread shops' exist.

Don't underestimate the ability of tourists from anywhere to not understand how to look around a shop.

Finding bread in America that isn't over-overloaded with sugar is very difficult.

Quite a few of my family take their own bread to the US. Of late, the problem has been solved as, apart from work, people just aren't travelling there anymore - for non bread-related reasons, of course. For the US fam that now travel back to the eu (an awful lot) more, they go wild for eu bread: it just doesn't taste like cak, /sp - i mean cake.

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#146

Post by com2kid »

bruce511 wrote: post #140
pazimzadeh wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Americans aren’t exposed to enough quality foods of certain types at a young age to develop the taste for them. For example, most Americans think Hershey’s is what chocolate is supposed to taste like, because they grew up with it. Same with the mushy Chorleywood processed bread and most American “cheese”

I think this is certainly the root of the misunderstandings in this (and other) spaces. At the very-local level of course there are exceptions, but generally speaking US food is terrible compared to European food. The US optimizes for volume and cost, Europe leans more towards quality. Yes, there's a lot of cheap rubbish food in Europe, but those consuming it know it's cheap rubbish. By contrast, and to your point, m…

> My local, nothing special, supermarket stocks over 100 species of cheese. I remember going to the US and being confronted either 3 (American, whatever that is, Swiss and Cheddar. Um, which is unlike any cheddar I've ever had. Frankly the biggest difference seemed to be the color (which is artificial).

When was this comparison done?

In the last decade or so American grocery stores have dramatically improved their cheese selections. I don't know if it is 100 different cheeses, but it is pretty darn close. And unusual regional cheeses come in all the time.

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#147

Post by schainks »

rootusrootus wrote: post #31
chris_va wrote: post #24

> Properly formed eyes are a mark of quality. Except when I asked someone who makes cheese in Switzerland, they told me almost the opposite (and mostly that they export the junk cheese to the US and keep the good stuff). As an aside, what are the odds this article was written by AI? It has that feel (minus random bolding and bullet points).

Why on Earth would they intentionally export only their garbage cheese? Then the world will only know them for that. The holes in modern Emmental cheese are created intentionally. In Switzerland the additive used to create them is forbidden. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmental_cheese#Natural_holes_...

Same reason why it’s hard to buy a decent Swiss wine: the good stuff makes it into bellies before it gets to the border!

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#148

Post by com2kid »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #77
rootusrootus wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm definitely not on the same wavelength as you this evening. > New York City has America’s best bagels That's a big claim. You say it's because they are best fresh -- are you saying that the rest of the country does not have anybody who makes fresh bagels? That's what I get from your first comment, but then you moved the goalposts a bit by qualifying "at an affordable price." So maybe other cities in the US do have…

> are you saying that the rest of the country does not have anybody who makes fresh bagels? Of the kind that stale in two hours? Yes. It wouldn’t be economical. > maybe other cities in the US do have bagels that are just as good as NYC but they are more expensive? Never say never, but I haven’t seen it. I have seen private chefs pull it off. But they basically required a sous chef to deal with the lye and boiling. >…

A minor correction to your base premise - There is a bagel shop in Newton MA that is open for a few hours in the morning that has bagels just as good as NYC.

People line to before they open and the bagels are quickly sold out in a mad rush.

There is a French bakery close to me in Seattle there makes croissants in the morning and they sell out in less than 2 hours. IMHO they are the best croissants in the city, although we have quite a few good local bakeries.

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#149

Post by com2kid »

tekno45 wrote: post #88
rootusrootus wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on Earth would they intentionally export only their garbage cheese? Then the world will only know them for that. The holes in modern Emmental cheese are created intentionally. In Switzerland the additive used to create them is forbidden. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmental_cheese#Natural_holes_...

so a tourist will go to switzerland love it and hate it once they're home? very good export business

That's how I felt about eggs after visiting Japan. American eggs are bland and tasteless in comparison. Backyard eggs are a general exception to that rule.

Re: Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

#150

Post by Kichererbsen »

riffraff wrote: post #13
ofalkaed wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American Swiss cheese developed from Emmental cheese.

It is odd, but people often confuse Emmenthaler and Gruyere. Even in Italian (just across the border!) it was not uncommon to hear expressions like "full of holes like groviera", and it seems in French it's the same based on the existence of this Wikipedia page https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradoxe_du_fromage_%C3%A0_tro... Language is just strange.

As a Swiss, confusing Emmenthaler and Gruyere is wild - they're soooo different in just about any property except both being called cheese. And I personally believe Emmenthaler to be the worst cheese produced in Switzerland. The only thing it has going for it are the iconic holes. Gruyere on the other hand is up there with the best of Swiss cheeses.
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