A Brief History of Austrian Cheese

We have teamed up with Europe House of Cheese: Austrian Cheese to share all the beauty—and allll the cheese—that Austria has to offer you. Austria’s mountainous landscape is household to 100% GMO-no cost dairy manufacturing, which can make for some genuinely legendary and undeniably tasty curds.

Austria is identified for numerous things—Mozart, meticulously crafted cakes, hills so beautiful they make Julie Andrews burst into track. Having said that, a person of the country’s genuine concealed gems is its cheese lifestyle. Irrespective of the level of popularity of neighboring alpine cheesemaking areas, Austrian cheese was not accessible in other European international locations until the 1990s, and did not appear to the U.S. until lately. For generations, the only way to test Austria’s special, flavorful cheeses was to go to Austria. The good thing is for us all, that is starting off to transform.

Cow Place

In Austria, cheese is a way of lifetime. A few-quarters of the region is rugged mountain terrain that is difficult for expanding crops, but excellent for alpine dairy farming. In this spectacular landscape, tiny herds of native alpine cows munch clover, dandelion, meadowsweet, marigold, thistle, and the plenty of other wild herbs and grasses that blanket the idyllic alpine pastureland. And as if which is not bucolic sufficient, they also quench their thirst with snow soften from very clear mountain streams. Regard for these cows operates so deep in Austrian tradition, they essentially throw them a celebration to welcome them household from superior mountain pastures each and every fall—it’s termed Almabtrieb, and the animals have on flower crowns and bells for it.

“[It’s] a colorful and attractive tribute,” says Sarah Mentin, who has attended many an Almabtrieb and works for Alma, an Austrian dairy cooperative. Mentin says each individual farmer has all-around 20 cows, and thinks of them as loved ones. The milk from these cows is pooled at neighborhood dairy co-ops that remodel it into cheese, if not it’s made into young wheels by the farmers them selves. They do so in mountain chalets known as Berghütte, wherever curd is cooked in copper kettles more than fires manufactured with fresh new-chopped wooden to coax out flavors of brown butter and toasted nuts. Wheels are then aged on spruce cabinets in centuries-previous ripening cellars, in a hyper-regional manufacturing line that is as sustainable currently as it has been for generations.

A Tale of Curds Past

In truth, Austrian cheese is more mature than Austria alone. Their mountain cheeses descend from caseus alpinus, produced below Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charlemagne in the ninth century. Even before the Romans arrived to the space, 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 numerous some others as significantly again as the Stone Age.

This heritage has led to a variety of styles—450 versions, give or take—and the names can get puzzling. It aids to know that Austrians communicate German, and in German “käse” translates to “cheese,” “berg” to “mountain,” and “alp” or “alm” to “mountain pasture.” The cheeses also commonly just take on the title of a region—popular wheels of Vorarlberg Bergkäse PDO and Alpkäse, for case in point, occur from the Vorarlberg mountains. Every single region’s one of a kind terroir provides its cheeses their have taste of area. Much like wine, inputs like climate, h2o, plant life, and even geological makeup in Austria deliver flavors entirely expressive of the land.

And it isn’t just challenging mountain cheeses—Austria also creates soft wheels that change from gentle bloomy rinds to pungent washed types, and date again to when monasteries peppered the hillsides. There are blues, also, and medium-business wheels that are recognized for their sleek paste and huge Emmentaler-like eye holes. No make a difference the design and style, they are all manufactured with utmost regard for the land (Austria’s 6.9 million acres of agricultural land are all GMO-no cost), applying recipes handed down by means of generations of loved ones-owned functions.

The ensuing cheese society is robust. Every single Austrian town has cheese stores, from Jumi Käse in Vienna to Kaslochl in Salzburg, and most grocery outlets have cheese counters. In Vorarlberg, there is even a KäseStrasse (Cheese Highway), regarded for making 60 cheese versions in 17 valley dairies and 90 alpine farmsteads.

Austrian Cheese in the Kitchen area

So what do Austrians do with all this cheese? Very well, like any very pleased alpine dweller, they make fondue. But they also craft dishes like Käsespätzle (believe: Austrian micro mac & cheese), Käseknödel (cheese dumplings), and Palatschinken (cheese pancakes), which Mentin says are well-liked in homes in the course of the region. Austrians even make their possess version of cheese plates, called Kalte Platten or Bretteljausen, accented by brown bread and wursts (sausages) of forest game meat.

These cheeses are ultimately earning their way into kitchens overseas, also. They are planet-class melters, ideal for grilled cheeses, tacky pastas, dips, egg dishes, and tarts both of those sweet and savory. They are rapidly pals with zippy Austrian wines like Grüner Veltliner, or Bavarian brews like Weizenbier, Helles and Vienna lagers, and bocks. And they are good for snacking—you do not require a great deal extra than an apple and a crusty piece of bread to appreciate them. No subject how you decide on to welcome this rare handle into your kitchen, you are assured an eye-opening taste of Austria’s gorgeous land and abundant historical past in every chunk.

Our mates at Europe Residence of Cheese: Austrian Cheese are spreading the phrase on curds built in this beautiful alpine setting. Cheesemaking in Austria is sustainable by character thanks to the region’s pure resources, making certain the hundreds of years-old artisanal tactics can continue—and that the herds of satisfied cows can continue on to be, effectively, delighted.

The written content of this marketing marketing campaign represents the views of the writer only and is his/her sole duty. The European Commission and the European Investigation Government Agency (REA) do not take any duty for any use that may perhaps be made of the data it consists of.