A Brief History of Austrian Cheese

We’ve teamed up with Europe Residence of Cheese: Austrian Cheese to share all the sweetness—and allll the cheese—that Austria has to supply. Austria’s mountainous panorama is house to 100% GMO-free dairy manufacturing, which makes for some actually iconic and undeniably scrumptious curds.

Austria is understood for a lot of issues—Mozart, meticulously crafted truffles, hills so stunning they make Julie Andrews burst into tune. Nonetheless, one of many nation’s true hidden gems is its cheese tradition. Regardless of the recognition of neighboring alpine cheesemaking areas, Austrian cheese wasn’t out there in different European nations till the Nineteen Nineties, and didn’t come to the U.S. till just lately. For hundreds of years, the one technique to attempt Austria’s distinctive, flavorful cheeses was to go to Austria. Thankfully for us all, that’s beginning to change.

Cow Nation

In Austria, cheese is a lifestyle. Three-quarters of the nation is rugged mountain terrain that’s troublesome for rising crops, however good for alpine dairy farming. On this beautiful panorama, small herds of native alpine cows munch clover, dandelion, meadowsweet, marigold, thistle, and the numerous different wild herbs and grasses that blanket the idyllic alpine pastureland. And as if that’s not bucolic sufficient, in addition they quench their thirst with snow soften from clear mountain streams. Respect for these cows runs so deep in Austrian tradition, they really throw them a celebration to welcome them house from excessive mountain pastures each fall—it’s known as Almabtrieb, and the animals put on flower crowns and bells for it.

“[It’s] a colourful and exquisite tribute,” says Sarah Mentin, who has attended many an Almabtrieb and works for Alma, an Austrian dairy cooperative. Mentin says every farmer has round 20 cows, and thinks of them as household. The milk from these cows is pooled at native dairy co-ops that remodel it into cheese, in any other case it’s made into younger wheels by the farmers themselves. They accomplish that in mountain chalets known as Berghütte, the place curd is cooked in copper kettles over fires made with fresh-chopped wooden to coax out flavors of brown butter and toasted nuts. Wheels are then aged on spruce cabinets in centuries-old ripening cellars, in a hyper-local manufacturing line that’s as sustainable in the present day because it has been for hundreds of years.

A Story of Curds Previous

In truth, Austrian cheese is older than Austria itself. Their mountain cheeses descend from caseus alpinus, developed underneath Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charlemagne within the ninth century. Even earlier than the Romans arrived to the realm, itinerant wanderers have been crafting bitter milk cheeses like Tyrolean Grey Cheese (or Tiroler Graukäse), Glundner Käse, Montafoner Sura Käse, Ennstaler Steirerkäse, Murtaler Steirerkäse, and lots of others way back to the Stone Age.

This historical past has led to a range of kinds—450 varieties, give or take—and the names can get complicated. It helps to know that Austrians converse German, and in German “käse” interprets to “cheese,” “berg” to “mountain,” and “alp” or “alm” to “mountain pasture.” The cheeses additionally sometimes tackle the title of a area—standard wheels of Vorarlberg Bergkäse PDO and Alpkäse, for instance, come from the Vorarlberg mountains. Every area’s distinctive terroir offers its cheeses their very own style of place. Very like wine, inputs like local weather, water, plants, and even geological make-up in Austria produce flavors solely expressive of the land.

And it isn’t simply onerous mountain cheeses—Austria additionally produces mushy wheels that adjust from delicate bloomy rinds to pungent washed ones, and date again to when monasteries peppered the hillsides. There are blues, too, and medium-firm wheels which can be recognized for his or her easy paste and big Emmentaler-like eye holes. Irrespective of the model, they’re all made with utmost respect for the land (Austria’s 6.9 million acres of agricultural land are all GMO-free), utilizing recipes handed down by way of generations of family-owned operations.

The ensuing cheese tradition is strong. Each Austrian metropolis has cheese retailers, from Jumi Käse in Vienna to Kaslochl in Salzburg, and most grocery shops have cheese counters. In Vorarlberg, there’s even a KäseStrasse (Cheese Highway), recognized for producing 60 cheese varieties in 17 valley dairies and 90 alpine farmsteads.

Austrian Cheese within the Kitchen

So what do Austrians do with all this cheese? Nicely, like all proud alpine dweller, they make fondue. However in addition they craft dishes like Käsespätzle (assume: Austrian micro mac & cheese), Käseknödel (cheese dumplings), and Palatschinken (cheese pancakes), which Mentin says are standard in households all through the nation. Austrians even make their very own model of cheese plates, known as Kalte Platten or Bretteljausen, accented by brown bread and wursts (sausages) of forest sport meat.

These cheeses are lastly making their approach into kitchens overseas, too. They’re world-class melters, good for grilled cheeses, tacky pastas, dips, egg dishes, and tarts each candy and savory. They’re quick buddies with zippy Austrian wines like Grüner Veltliner, or Bavarian brews like Weizenbier, Helles and Vienna lagers, and bocks. And so they’re nice for snacking—you don’t want far more than an apple and a crusty piece of bread to get pleasure from them. Irrespective of the way you select to welcome this uncommon deal with into your kitchen, you’re assured an eye-opening style of Austria’s stunning land and wealthy historical past in each chew.

Our buddies at Europe Residence of Cheese: Austrian Cheese are spreading the phrase on curds made on this beautiful alpine setting. Cheesemaking in Austria is sustainable by nature because of the area’s pure sources, guaranteeing the centuries-old artisanal practices can proceed—and that the herds of blissful cows can proceed to be, nicely, blissful.

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