Emmental de Savoie

Appearance & taste

The wheel has an even shape, measures 72 to 80 cm in diameter and is more or less convex, without a hollow and without a “cap”. At the edge it is at least 14 cm high, at the highest point at most 32 cm; when fully ripened it weighs at least 60 kg. The rind is yellowish brown to yellow, without spots or blemishes. The finished cheese contains at least 28 % fat and at most 0.4 g of salt per 100 g.

The paste is evenly coloured, firm and supple. Its holes are clearly outlined, regular and well distributed, do not run into each other and range from the size of a small cherry to that of a nut. The specification describes the taste as clean and fruity. The cheese is sold as a whole wheel, as a sector of a wheel or prepacked in pieces, slices, grated or diced.

Production

The milk comes from herds in which at least 75 % of the cows are of the Abondance, Montbéliarde or Tarentaise breeds. According to the specification, these breeds are well adapted to the area: their build suits pastures on slopes, they tolerate the temperatures and make good use of summer pasture and dry winter fodder. The roughage for the dairy cows comes entirely from the area. Dry fodder, maize cobs, grain maize and fodder beet from outside are limited to an annual average of 4 kg of dry matter per cow per day.

Only raw milk is used; the curd is cooked and pressed. Since 2000 the producers’ association has provided the businesses with data on the bacterial strains typical of this cheese, and thermophilic lactobacilli are used systematically. The characteristic holes form during 21 days of storage in warm cellars through the controlled formation of propionic acid. Milk production, milk collection, processing and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area covers the Alpine foothills but not the high mountains; it lies mostly between 200 and 1,500 m, with individual peaks up to 2,200 m. The mostly deep, well-drained soils on Quaternary and molasse deposits also support cereals such as maize. With more than 900 mm of rain a year, green fodder grows in abundance, and both pastures and hay meadows have a varied, Alpine flora.

The cheese belongs to the history of cooked, pressed cheeses and developed together with the cheese dairies, since only they had the large quantities of milk needed for the large wheels. Because it was available all year round, according to the specification it became the most important cheese of Savoy, until the 1980s; in 1955 H. Tournebise described the valleys and the foothills as its main area of distribution. Its rise was also linked to the milking machine, milk cooling and inoculation with natural starters. Farms in the large massifs of the northern Alps do not supply milk for it, because they are historically tied to other cheeses.