I've never really eaten much cheese before. But since I'm in Switzerland, I thought I would try it but not really sure where to start.

Anyone able recommend some sort of tasting selection? Are all cheeses here made unpasturised or do I need to go somewhere special to get unpasturised cheese?

Why not start with a mild Emmentaler. Tastes a bit sweetish. Do you think you might like that instead of jumping right into some of that feet smelling stuff you know !!

well - really do know nothing about cheese so don't know where to start. i wanted to go for unpasturised because i don't like the taste of pasturised products (e.g. milk, fruit juice etc.) and i'm sure it would be the same for cheese.

I believe the Emmental cheese is precisely one of those ...

You'll probably find that pasturised cow milk cheese are a little easier to understand at the beginning and are probably less 'confrontational' than unpasturised varieties.

The best way to start is to go to any goo cheese counter (globus, Jemoli or our friend the British Cheese Centre) and ask to taste some of the cheeses. Once you know a cheese that you like, look on the net and get some information on how the cheese is made and other similar cheeses.

IMO, Mike at the BCC has a good selection of mild and easy tasting cheeses that we set you on the right track. He also has the stronger styles that may also appeal to you, but it just depends on your taste buds. The good thing is that whether you like them or not, you know with Mike that the quality is good.

Cheese is like wine... taste is subjective but quality is objective and the danger is that you can try an Emmental that is low in quality and hate it but then try a high quality Emmental and love it... There is a big difference in cheese you get in a supermarket and the stuff you get at quality shops, be careful out there...

thanks for the suggestions - i'll give it a whirl. anyone know of a shop called chaes marilli (or something like that). seems to be a specialist cheese shop.

Any cheese stall on any market will willingly give you a taster and tell you all about the cheese you are tasting.

Gal

I think you may be confusing pasteurised and UHT milk.... Pasteurised milk has been heated to 71.7º for 15 seconds to kill any harmful bacteria, UHT, or Ultra Heat Treated, has been heated to at least 135º to make it last a long time - UHT is the one that has the funny taste and there is no (that I know of) cheeses made from UHT milk - I guess there would be no need to as the process of making cheese "preserves" the milk anyway.

Regarding flavour, raw milk (un-pasteurised) cheeses generally have more flavour, or more levels of flavour, or "complexity" than pasteurised. Having said that there are many pasteurised cheeses (some older cheddars for example) that can still be quite "spicy".

My advice would be to go to a good cheese shop and try a few, starting with younger or paler looking cheeses - these tend to be milder - and working your way up to older ones. Also, please try sheeps milk cheeses, these can be mild but also have lots of complex or spicy flavours. There is a guy in the Zurich HB Wednesday market who only sells sheeps milk cheese (he makes it himself). Sheeps milk cheese is easier to digest as the protein molecules are smaller than cows milk (or so I have been told, I'm no scientist) which means it is good for people with lactose intollerance problems.

If you do make it to the HB market come and see me and I'll run you through a large range of raw and pasteurised, mild, strong, sheep, goat and cows milk British cheeses. Absolutely no need to buy if you don't find one that doesn't suit you!

Thanks for the tips! UHT is very 'yucky' but i do mean pasturised. we did used to get unpasturised milk from the farmer but i only vaguely remember it but do remember not liking the pasturised stuff to begin with. i'm not sure whether it is still legal or not to get unpasturised milk. AFAIK, cheese within the EU needs to be made from pasturised milk - but maybe you can enlighten me on that.

There's a huge difference in taste between raw orange juice and pasturised fresh orange juice.

thansk for the tips and i might take you up on your offer soon!

Simply taking from another thread :


Some of my favourites :

Caprice des Dieux :
www.unamourdefromage.com/


Bel Paese (Galbani)


Various sorts of Feta Cheese (no Egyptian Feta here in Switzerland unfortunately), with this one being really delicious :


They are available everywhere and ARE delicious !

A common misconception, especially amongst the Swiss, about half of my British cheeses are un-pasteurised. There are just more health and safety hoops to jump through for the cheese makers.

See you at the market, we start again on the 20th Jan then again from 3rd Feb

EDIT - you can buy raw milk in Switzerland direct from the farm. There is already a thread here somewhere about auto vending machines - I saw a machine just before Christmas somewhere but for the life of me I can't remember where!

In the 1950ies into the early 60ies we had fresh milk each morning from the milk shop owner. People gave their order the evening before and placed their cans into the right place and in the very early morning he filled up as requested. But this came to an end in the mid 60ies. What then came was pasteurized milk which had to be consumed in time and had an unpleasant smell. On holidays in the Toscana it was fresh milk again plus of course the whole range of those nice Italian cheeses !

thanks. out of interest, would you say that some of the british cheeses you stock are 'better' than swiss cheeses? it feels a little strange to buy british cheese in switzerland when swiss cheese is so famous. but then i've had some artisan british chocolate which i prefer to some of the swiss chocolate i've tasted.

Absolutely not, they are just very different. Most of my customers (about 80% now) are Swiss and they buy from me because I bring very different styles of cheese over with "character". My cheese is not UK supermarket cheese (which is what gave the UK a bad reputation in the first place).

Britain, being an island and isolated from European influences, created such different styles of cheese. Cheddar for example, there is nothing like a real farm made raw milk cheddar in Europe. We have over 700 varieties (twice as many as France ), with a total of maybe 1500 different cheeses in Britain and Ireland. I would say 300-400 would be good enough to sell in Switzerland.

Why not buying Belgian chocolate in Switzerland, or Italian wine in France, or Italian and French and British cheese in Switzerland ? That "Grumpygratefruit" tries to "sell" his cheese is one side, that he really offers dreams of cheeses the other side ! He stated things which relatives of me who were/are cheesemakers told me years ago. And so are definitely correct. Italian, Swiss and French cheesemakers would possibly contradict him in regard to "valuation" but sure NOT in regard to knowledge and expertise !

I would be interested to understand what you meant about 'validation'? Cheers

I think you misread it..

I read correctly, I just wrote wrongly!!

it is late in the evening, BUT it is valUATIon and NOT validation ! Valuation means to give a certain value to expertise.

Try Fribourg or Gruyere cheese, Apenzeller or Emmentaler are fine too.
Then be a bit adventurous and as above adviced roam on markets and taste.