About Me
Cheese has long been a staple of the Swiss diet… a fact that’s hardly surprising in a nation where, until recent times, dairy cows outnumbered people.
Emmentaler Cheese hails from the central cantons of Switzerland.It is Switzerland's oldest and most important cheese.
The etymology of the word Emmental gives the key of its origin: Tal=valley, and Emme is the name of a river in Switzerland. The Emmental valley is probably the best-known valley in Switzerland - people from the Emmental are considered to be hard working, thoughtful, and independent.
In the beginning - sources indicate the early 1500s - Emmentaler was not manufactured with trade in mind, but for preserving the milk of the significant herds.
Quite naturally, this cheese making technique spread to the mass populations nearby, and almost all the nations of the Alpine developed a production of Emmentaler: Austria, Germany, France, and Italy (pre-war period).
Today, it takes 1 tons of milk to make 1 wheel of Emmentaler, about 220 lbs of cheese!
