Switzerland is a nation of cheese.
Although it has slightly less than nine million inhabitants, 207.000 tons of cheese are produced in this country annually.
Among the 450 types, there is one that is known as the "king of cheeses".
It is so famous that it has become synonymous with Switzerland.
That cheese is, of course, Emmentaler, or "Swiss cheese", as it is called in North America.
- Pag cheese: Food with the taste of wind
- An Italian died when he was buried by thousands of rolls of cheese in a warehouse
- Can food preparation be dangerous to health?
It is hard not to overestimate how ubiquitous the Emmentaler is.
Along with Swiss army knives, cuckoo clocks and cowbells, cheese with holes is one of the most recognizable symbols of Switzerland.
Souvenir shops sell Emmentaler key chains and socks inspired by it.
For six years, the Swiss ski team's racing overalls looked like an Emmentaler, attracting international attention at the 1994 Olympics.
Many around the world learn about this cheese as early as childhood.
It appears in the book A very hungry caterpillar, as well as a cartoon Peppa Pig.
Cheese is tasty and versatile, its taste changes with age.
The youngest versions, which ripen in Switzerland for only four months, have a nutty and sweet taste with a mild aroma.
As the cheese ages, it takes on a strong, almost spicy flavor, along with the aroma of herbs or hay.
Despite this, few people really know what is considered the most famous cheese in Switzerland.
This is because most of the "Swiss cheese" consumed outside the country is not "true" Emmentaler.
This is claimed by Emmentaler Switzerland, the Swiss association of Emmentaler producers.
It is an imitation, usually made industrially, outside the Emmental region, in a process that has little in common with the hand-made, carefully controlled production of Emmental cheese AOP (Protected designation of origin or Protected Designation of Origin).
"We are a traditional, artisanal product made from fresh milk.
"We are not an industrial product where milk comes from 200, 300, 400, 500 kilometers away and is then industrialized into a rectangular cheese-type product that occasionally has holes," said Fred Ruffer, deputy director of Emmentaler Switzerland.
Located in western Switzerland, the Emmental is an idyllic region of rolling hills, interspersed with forests and pastures and punctuated by traditional farmhouses with large, pitched roofs.
It is also the only region where, according to Swiss regulations, real Emmentaler cheese can be made, which has the AOP designation.
Outside of Switzerland, legislation is much more relaxed and other Emmentalers abound.
To make matters even more confusing, there are three other Emmentaler-inspired cheeses with the same name in the name - one from Germany and two from France - that have protected status in the European Union (EU).
Emmentaler Switzerland recently lost a court case in the EU that would have given them the exclusive right to brand their cheese as Emmentaler.
In the US, for example, the terms Emmentaler and Swiss cheese are "used interchangeably," says Laura Verlin, award-winning author of six books on cheese.
"So even if the cheese is made in large blocks and not in rounds like traditional Emmentaler, the cheese plant can still call it Emmentaler," he explains.
This, she says, affected Emmentaler's reputation abroad.
"Because the terms Swiss cheese and Emmentaler are used interchangeably in the U.S., true Emmentaler is not understood or appreciated," she says.
"Here, the so-called Swiss cheese is used more often as an ingredient than as a table cheese. They don't take it as seriously as, for example, their Swiss counterparts Grier and Appenzell," she says.
The secret of Pirot cheese:
The careful regulations governing the Swiss Emmentaler AOP begin with the milk.
The Emmentaler dairies, which have around 26 cows each, adhere to strict guidelines on how much exercise, fresh air and space the cows get.
Cows eat only fresh grass and hay, without supplements.
They must live within 20 kilometers of the cheese maker.
Once milked, raw (unpasteurized, unhomogenized) milk must be delivered in time for cheese production to begin within 24 hours of milking, ensuring freshness. Only then can the process begin.
At Kaserei Hupfenboden, a 150-year-old hilltop farmhouse that is both cheese factory and home, cheesemaker Bernard Hupfenboden opened a side door from the family kitchen into one of the region's 110 Emmentaler cheese factories.
The whole process is completely managed by Hupfenboden, his wife and an assistant.
When I arrived that morning, Hupfenboden had already been at work for three hours.
It starts at five in the morning, when he adds natural bacteria, including proof-of-origin markers that prevent adulteration, to raw milk delivered the night before.
It also doesn't mean his days end early.
Making cheese, then manually cleaning each machine, lasts until noon.
During the afternoon, he deals with administration or selling cheese at the market.
Making Emmentaler is not only a time-consuming job, it is hard work.
"Emmentaler is one of the most difficult cheeses to produce," said Rufer.
Although he is biased, he is far from the only one who thinks so.
Other dairy experts also say that "good cheese is the hardest thing to make" and "the list of things that can go wrong is almost endless."
When I arrived at Kaserei Hupfenboden, the natural bacteria and rennet, a milk coagulating agent, did their thing.
A small white curd formed in a huge copper barrel.
Using a cheese harp, which looks just like it sounds, Hupfenboden cut the curds.
Then the heating process began in the same barrel.
The curd is heated to 52 degrees Celsius.
He checked them over and over for size and consistency.
The Hupfenboden family breakfasted on freshly churned butter, milk, bread and bits of family cheese, a meal they assured me was not prepared just for me, but was what they ate every day.
And in that hour and a half, the curd was pumped into cheese moulds. Nothing is thrown away.
The whey was pumped out separately to feed the pigs of the neighboring farmers.
Hupfenboden carefully applied the Emmentaler AOP label, a circle radiating cheerful red stripes, to each mold.
In addition to the AOP mark, the seal is also decorated with a factory number.
Buy any Emmentaler AOP today and it will have this label, meaning you can find the number and see where the cheese was produced.
Each mold is then pressed for almost a full day before going into a salt bath for two days, which helps remove excess water and forms a hard, protective rind over the cheese.
Finally, the cheese is brought to the cellar to mature for at least four months.
Before being released for sale, it is evaluated by Emmentaler quality control experts. None of this is easy.
Even with curd heating, something as small as whether the day is warm or cold can affect the entire process, requiring the cheese maker to make appropriate adjustments.
Messing up is expensive. About 1.200 liters of milk, which amounts to about 1.900 euros of investment for a cheese producer like Hupfenboden, goes into one wheel of cheese of 90 kilograms.
And what is one sign of a perfect point of Emmentaler? Holes.
In the sample that inspectors remove with a cheese drill — about 10 centimeters long and one centimeter in diameter — you should see two or three round, shiny holes the size of a cherry, Rufer said.
Failure to achieve this results in a loss of points for the cheesemaker, which is scored on a scale of 1 to 20.
Each wheel must earn at least 18 points before it can go on sale.
This is not just an aesthetic preference. Correct holes mean the overall quality of the cheese, as they are a key indicator of how the process went.
Other hard cheeses have a single fermentation stage, where the cheese's lactose is converted into lactic acid.
But Emmentaler, thanks in part to the specific fermentation cellar temperature of 19-24 degrees Celsius, has a second stage: propionic acid fermentation.
That phase produces carbon dioxide, which, trapped in the hard-rind cheese, has nowhere to go.
This gas creates air pockets, or holes.
"No other cheese has this kind of production step, that second step with the second fermentation.
"This is unique to Emmentaler," said Rufer
A unique process, and in recent years it has been in danger.
Over the last few decades, cheese makers have found it harder and harder to get the desired number of holes.
Something has gone wrong with a process that has worked for some 750 years. What happened?
Agroscope, the Swiss government's food research center, published a study in 2015 with an interesting finding - Swiss milk has become too pure.
The microscopic pieces of hay were the perfect "home" for the carbon dioxide bubbles to stick together, helping to make the holes.
But over the past few decades, as many dairies have switched to newer, cleaner technologies — automatic pumping machines instead of manual milking, for example — the milk has become cleaner.
In fact, Rufer said that at the last general meeting of the Emmentaler Consortium, one of the main items on the agenda was whether to allow hay particles back into milk.
"Not as an (artificial) additive," he hastened to say.
"But to add it to milk to produce more holes, cleaner and more beautiful."
The association is still deciding on that.
How to choose gazebo cheese:
But along with saving Emmentaler holes, they have another challenge, which is to rehabilitate Emmentaler's reputation.
Around the world, it seems, the Emmentaler is somewhat taken for granted.
This is partly due to the amount of Emmental imitations.
But even in Switzerland, where people are more likely to have tasted Emmentaler AOP and know the difference, it is often considered more of a staple than a delicacy.
It may also be the downside of its historical popularity.
After World War II, the Swiss Cheese Union, which later disbanded in 1999, primarily promoted three cheeses, among which was Emmentaler.
"Emmentaler used to be everyone's everyday cheese," said Rufer.
As a result, his image today, he says, might be "a little old-fashioned."
This stereotype makes less sense today.
First, despite the ubiquity of its image, Emmentaler AOP is hardly common.
With only 110 factories producing Emmentaler AOP, it accounts for eight percent of total cheese production in Switzerland, half that of Grier AOP and even less than mozzarella.
Making it, as I've seen firsthand, is a complex mix of art and science, making it one of the most difficult cheeses to make well.
Also, Emmentaler AOP is very tasty.
At Kaserei Hupfenboden, Hupfenboden cuts slices of six-month, twelve-month and eighteen-month Emmentaler to taste.
The younger cheese was subtle and sweet.
As the cheese ripened, the taste became more intense - nutty, almost sharp, with a pleasant smell of hay.
He then cut a piece of a special cheese, a wheel that has matured for nine years, which is very rare.
Usually the oldest you see in stores is 18 months.
The taste was extraordinary, the aromas even more intense and complex.
This was not the "Swiss cheese" that I might have put in a turkey and mustard sandwich and eaten without even tasting it.
It was something completely different - something that deserved the nickname "king of cheeses" and even the place of the main culinary symbol of Switzerland.
How to make Kolašin kačamak:
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter i Viber. If you have a topic proposal for us, contact us at bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
Bonus video:
