Ahh, the cheesy goodness that Swiss cheese brings! When you think of Swiss cheese, you think of vibrant Alpine scenes filled with snow-capped mountains, green rolling hills, and delicious cheese. But do you know how cheese gets to be the creamy Swiss cheese we all know and love? I’m going to tell you all about the process of making that perfect Swiss cheese.
The process of making Swiss cheese starts off with a recipe of starter culture, rennet, and milk. The starter culture, a combination of lactic acid bacteria, helps convert all the lactose in the milk into lactic acid. The rennet helps coagulate the milk and make it look more like cheese. Once this mixture is combined, the cheese begins to form a gel-like consistency that is cut into tiny cubes.
Next, the coagulated cheese is placed into a cheese vat where it is heated up to a specific temperature, usually around 90°F. As the cheese gets heated, it begins to separate into a solid curd and liquid whey. Slowly, the curd and whey are separated in the vat and the curd is cooked until it reaches a firm consistency.
After it has been cooked, it is cut into tiny cubes and cooked until the whey has been completely removed from the curd. This helps give Swiss cheese its characteristic texture. At this point, the cheese is put into molds where it is pressed for several hours, which helps it maintain its shape.
Now comes the fun part—the aging process! Once the cheese are out of the molds and pressed into their final shape, it is time to age them. Swiss cheese is quickly aged in special rooms for about 60–90 days, where it develops all its flavor and that signature yellowish hue. During this time, holes form in the cheese and the cheese is turned every few weeks.
Finally, after the cheese has been aged and developed its flavor, it is packaged and shipped to grocery stores, cheese shops, and restaurants around the world.
So there you have it, the full scoop on How Swiss Cheese is made! From the starter culture to the cheese vat to the aging process, it takes a lot to make that perfect Swiss cheese. And there’s no part funnier than when the holes start to form! So the next time you have some delicious Swiss cheese, you can appreciate just how much work goes into it.