German steamers and German restaurants nearly always offer a variety of
French, Dutch, Italian, English, and Swiss cheeses in addition to those
of their own country, among the best known of which are the Handkäse,
the Liptauer, the Harz, the Kräuter and the Limburger, which, though it
originated in Belgium, has come to be looked upon as a specifically
German variety.
Germany is not, like Switzerland, Holland, and parts of France, a land
of pastures green and studded with grazing cows. Pasturage throughout
the Empire is usually so scarce--the land being needed for grain and
other crops--that the cows, poor things, are kept in stables all the
year round. It is therefore, not surprising that Germany is not among
the great exporters of cheeses, most of the many domestic varieties,
some of which are excellent, being consumed at home.
Very different is the situation in Switzerland, where cheese-making is
one of the principal industries, the value of the exports exceeding
$12,000,000 a year, nearly one quarter of which, in 1911, was sent to
the United States. So good is the Flavor of Schweizerkäse that even
France, in that year, took $2,688,539 worth of it, while Germany took
$1,888,257 worth.
Nearly all the cheese which Switzerland exports is of the hard
Emmenthaler type, put up in the huge cakes familiar to us all. It is
practically the same as the French Gruyère. Not all Emmenthaler comes
from the Emmenthal, the valley where the pasturage is particularly
abundant and juicy.
The best flavored Swiss cheese is that which is made in summer, when
the cows roam the mountain sides, going up higher and higher as the
season advances and the snow melts, till they reach the slopes where
even at the end of August the soil is still moist and the herbage
two or three feet tall. This succulent food, consisting largely of
lovely Alpine flowers, they industriously condense into fragrant cream,
butter, and cheese.
When we speak of the Alps we mean snow mountains, particularly those
of Switzerland. The Swiss themselves, however, when they refer to the
Alps, mean the green pastures on the mountain sides on which the cows
gather sustenance and wealth for them.
On one of these Alps, above Mürren, I once accosted a peasant who gave
me information which confirmed my belief that the much-liked Flavor of
Swiss cheese is due not alone to the succulent Alpine forage, but also,
in great part, to the way the best of it is made--with all the cream
left in the milk.
This peasant was himself a cheesemaker, and our conversation took place
within sight of his cowsheds. He was surprised when I asked him if he
ever used sour cream to make butter. He had never dreamt of such a
thing. Usually he churned it in the evening, using the cream that had
risen on the morning of the same day. At the latest the churning was
done the next morning before the cream could possibly sour in that
climate. A sour "starter," such as is nearly always added to cream in
America before it is churned, he had never heard of; the very idea
amazed him. And Swiss butter is nearly always good, while American
butter is usually bad.
Questioned in regard to cheese, he said they made two grades of it, the
_Fettkäse_, which contains all the cream, and the _Magerkäse_, made
of skim milk. For the latter kind, he said, he had no use, because it
was comparatively tasteless. It is made in considerable quantities,
however, for the poor, of milk from which the cream has been taken for
butter-making or for the hotel tables.
Cheese-making is much more of a fine art than most of us imagine. The
utmost skill and care must be used to exclude undesirable flavors in
the air due to uncleanly surroundings, since cheese absorbs these as
readily as butter does. The season of the year and the feed must always
be considered. Thus, in regard to the highly prized English Stilton we
read that the finest variety "is principally made between March and
September and solely from the milk of cows fed on natural pasture"; and
that "the use of artificial food for the cows is at once detected in
a change for the worse in the character of the cheese"--that is, its
flavor.
Upon good feeding depends the production of fat in milk, and milk fat,
alias cream, is a great source of Flavor. The best kinds of most of the
leading cheeses are made of whole milk--milk with none of the cream
taken out. Some kinds, like cottage cheese, are made of skim milk yet
how the addition of cream improves their Flavor! Camembert, of course,
is made of whole milk, and in the manufacture of some kinds, including
Stilton, extra cream is sometimes added.
Much spurious stuff is palmed off on unwary buyers as whole milk or
cream cheese. The dealers who do this, think themselves "smart," but in
the end they harm their business. The excellent little book on "Cheese
and Cheese Making," by Long and Benson (London: Chapman and Hall, 1896)
begins with these instructive words:
"Professor Henry, of the Wisconsin Agricultural College, recently
stated that the loss of the American cheese trade with great Britain
was owing to the fact that his countrymen did not make the best
article, and that in many cases imitation cheese was produced for
the sake of _a possible temporary profit but to the ultimate loss of
all concerned_. Whatever may be the immediate gain effected by the
addition of foreign fat to milk, or by the removal of a portion of the
cream it contains, _the permanent value of the cheese industry to the
producer is maintained only by the manufacture of the best_ and of its
production in the largest possible quantity."
The italics are mine. They emphasize what is one of the most
regrettable aspects of the situation in America--the deplorable and at
the same time foolish disposition to make an immediate extra profit by
unloading on purchasers inferior cheeses and other foods in the belief
that the consumers are too ignorant or indifferent to know or care what
they get.
From personal experience I can relate a detail of New York market
history which vividly illustrates the folly of this attitude.
For several years I was able to buy the best Edam cheeses made in
Holland--full-cream and therefore full-flavored. One autumn, on
returning to the city, I tried in vain to get this same brand at the
places where it had been on sale. I sampled the substitutes but was
not satisfied with their Flavor. Having found out through a grocer the
name of the importer of that brand, I called on him and asked why he no
longer had it on his list. He had the effrontery to inform me that it
was because he had had so many complaints that that brand did not keep
well--that it "dried out." I told him that my own experience had been
just the reverse, and that, as a matter of course, the more cream-fat
there was in a cheese the more slowly it would dry out. But he stuck to
his story.
In a confidential talk with a grocer I then ascertained what I had
suspected. Dealers in cheap Edams, made of skimmed milk, had crowded
out the maker of the creamy Edam who, of course, could not make so low
a price to the wholesale dealers as they did. "Why not import several
brands and charge according to their value and Flavor?" I asked, adding
that many persons surely would gladly pay extra for the better grades.
But that argument, too, was unavailing. The "smart" dealers did not
wish to offer several grades; they wanted to charge the highest price
for the lowest grade. And now note the consequences.
In one large market which I often passed there was at that time a large
show case containing dozens of the familiar red "cannon balls"; but
they were no longer of the full-cream brand the lively demand for which
had won them the most prominent place in that glass case. The new brand
bore a label on which was printed "Made of Skimmed Milk"; and this same
brand seemed to be almost exclusively on sale all over town.
There was nothing dishonest about this procedure. Dealers have the
right to sell any variety they choose, and this brand, being clearly
marked, did not pretend to be what it was not. It evidently came from
Holland, and it was as good a cheese as can be made of skimmed milk.
The importers and dealers evidently believed that the consumers were
too ignorant or indifferent to care whether or not the cheese they
bought had the rich creamy Flavor. At first I feared they might be
right in this surmise, but ere long I found that I was by no means the
only person who had stopped buying Edam because the best brand was
no longer kept on sale in the American metropolis. The number of red
balls in that show case gradually diminished and finally disappeared
altogether.
The Dutch Government has given much attention to the question of cream
in cheese, and no wonder, for the annual production of cheese in
Holland amounts to at least 175,000,000 pounds, of which two-thirds
are exported. The Minister of Agriculture has authorized the use of
labels guaranteeing purity and quality. The Government control stamp
"can be used only on cheese made of unskimmed milk and containing 45
per cent. of fats," writes Consul Frank W. Mahin from Amsterdam. "It is
the special intention to make the full-fat product more profitable by
marking it, which at the same time will promote the manufacture of the
cheese of superior qualities."
In another contribution on this subject to the "Consular and Trade
Reports" (April, 1911) Mr. Mahin provides information which buyers of
Edam or Gouda will do well to bear in mind:
"A meeting of the North Holland Cheese Control Station, attended by a
representative of the Government, was recently held at Hoorn, at which
it was decided to divide marked cheese into two classes: (1) Cheese
of Edam shape, with fatty component in the dry material of at least
40 per cent., to be marked 40+, in a hexagon; (2) full fat cheese, of
different shapes, with a fatty substance in the dry material of at
least 45 per cent., to be marked Rijkscontrole (Government control).
"It was stated at the meeting that the average proportion of fat in the
cheese made in 1910 by factories was 44.8 per cent. and by farmers 47.5
per cent., being one per cent. higher than in 1909. _The quantity of
marked cheese sold in 1910 was 45 per cent. greater than in 1909, and
the demand from dealers therefore has so much increased that there is
now a shortage._"
Evidently, dealers are not everywhere as short-sighted as were those of
New York. However, in the autumn of 1912 I noticed, among these, signs
of almost human intelligence. Before the end of 1912 I saw in some
stores Dutch cheeses labeled "Above 40% butter-fat in total solids." By
and by we may perhaps be permitted to spend our money even for the kind
made by the farmers and containing 47.5 per cent. of cream fat.
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