cave cheese In a sandstone cave in the canton of Lucerne for decades matures a very special Swiss cheese . Your past in the cave makes the difference. Morning at 6 clock makes superintendent Walter Burri the first round by the cave Kaltenbach. The other four cave masters are traveling through the cheese racks. Each daily batch is inspected before Burri and his team will decide on the next processing steps . Brush contact , wash , and the countless times a day. Care robots help . Alone for brushes we know 12 different programs with different pressure . There is no hard and fast rules , the cheese care is very individual , says Burri . In the sandstone cave store some 30 000 cheeses that ripen during six to nine months to a specialty : the cave cheese. The now five meters high and 2130 meters long cave is located in Kaltenbach , a small village in the canton of Lucerne , which belongs politically to the municipality Mauensee . Before 1956 the first cheese was stored in the cave , she served farmers as storage for equipment or hay. She was only 50 feet long. Since cheese particularly well matured in the cave , the cave has gradually in the following years . Since 1993, Emmi AG has in Kaltenbach own dairy with the famous sandstone cave . 1999, the height of three was expanded to five meters and already provided space for 13 000 cheeses . End of October 2010 was inaugurated the expanded cheese ripening cave after two years of construction. For over 30 years, Burri now already busy with cheese. It began in 1969 with the teaching on cheese , it is for 25 years manager in Kaltenbach. Boring it will never , he says. No day is like another , in addition to all sorts of tasks around the cheese, also gets a lot of office work. The cheese is a very important part of my life , laughs Burri . He cherishes and cares for the cheeses with passion . The sandstone regulates the humidity in the cave , so that throughout the year there is a constant humidity of 94 percent at a temperature of up to eleven twelve degrees Celsius. Sandstone consists of a mixture of quartz, calcite, feldspar , mica and other rock fragments . About 20 percent of the rock are open , water-filled pores. The special composition is responsible for the typical mineralization of the cave air. The result is the hallmark of the cave cheese: the black - brown patina . The thinner the dark bark , the better the cheese. In the climate of the cave part is particularly brittle . You need not be a cheese connoisseur to notice that cave -ripened cheese becomes more aromatic taste than conventionally matured , Burri raves about his cheese. Every bite melts in the mouth. The Kaltenbach cheese is free of artificial additives , in the maturation of only water, salt, moisture , temperature, mold and bacteria are used. With such simple means to produce a consistently good product, is a challenge for every cheese , says Burri . As the ripening of the cheese looks exactly documented according Burri nowhere . It just stuck in the minds of the people. But the best capital for the quality of the cheese is grown over the years know- how in the cave, very difficult what do imitators . our all processes would be worth nothing without the experience of our staff . Is absolute secret , according Burri , of course , the composition of Sulz, which are treated with the cheeses . At this recipe has been working for years . Around 80 000 cheeses ripen throughout the year in the cave and then sold worldwide . Every week 1800-2000 cheeses mature and leave the cave . Approximately the same amount of cheese replenishment takes Burri also receive weekly from selected dairies in Switzerland. Emmi AG has about 120 Emmentaler cheese under contract , but only four of them may consign their cheese directly into the cave in Kaltenbach. Andreas Schütz is one of them , which makes him quite proud. Only the best make it to the cave , he knows . Käsermeister contactor works in the dairy Ganzenberg , Rohrbachgraben (BE), which belongs to the dairy cooperative Ganzenberg with 13 milk suppliers . Contactor produced daily three loaves of Emmentaler Switzerland AOC per 90-95 kg weight. Over the year as there are around 92 tonnes of Emmental cheese together . The cheeses are collected monthly in the cheese , in order to intervene in the cave Kaltenbach. Is produced according to the strict quality guidelines of the AOC label (Appellation d Origine Contr ^ olee ) . This proves the authenticity of Swiss origin and is a raw milk cheese - premium product. Switzerland produces about 0.5 percent of the global amount of cheese as we can exist only by absolute highest quality , white contactor. Who bites into the cave-aged , spicy and smooth dough , no thoughts makes probably about how stuck many steps and how much passion in it. Käsermeister , which is a round- the-clock job. The milk must be less than 18 hours old, when it is processed to Emmentaler AOC . And it is delivered twice a day . Holiday? Contactor does not know. The father of three is body and soul cheese . The milk is freshly delivered and processed , he says , stressing that his holidays as others make them not be missing . But he enjoys his daily work-free afternoons he spends with his family , all the more. Unlike other cheese he does not live in the apartment belonging to the cheese , but a few miles away in his own house . Also gives a bit of distance to detachment from work . His profession currently have recruitment problems , he says. And since the Emmentaler cheese business in Switzerland is very dependent on exports , the euro crisis is felt. Consumers need to be prepared for a premium product , such as Emmentaler AOC made from raw milk, also to pay a little more , he appealed . Sales of Kaltenbach cheese has grown steadily in recent years . One reason to double the capacity of the cave in the final phase of construction from 2008 to 2010 . But it is not the popularity of his cheese has the superintendent surprised , but the large crowds at the new visitor center , which opened last October. For this year, it is almost fully booked for 2012 and there are already reservations . prestigemag.ch/de/page///hoehlenkaese/
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 22:38:54 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015