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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Swiss and French Jura and Alps, Allgäu, Vorarlberg

Cooked hard alpine cheese family (Comté, Gruyère and Emmentaler as templates)Emmentaler

Raw cow milk is set in a copper vat, cut into fine grains and cooked to the mid-50s °C. The curd is pressed into large wheels, salted and ripened for months on spruce boards; in the eyed types a warm cellar lets propionic bacteria blow holes. Made in 8 steps over 5.6 months – 6.1 months. The longest step, ripen for months on spruce boards, takes at least 3.9 months (INAO 2013) and runs at 12–19 °C (Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture 1999). Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus helveticus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 3.9 monthsSet[comte-cdc][gruyere-blw][emmentaler-ch]Ripen for months on spruce boards
Temperature12–19 °CSet[gruyere-blw][comte-cdc][emmentaler-ch]Ripen for months on spruce boards
AciditypH 5.3Reported[bonilauri2026]Collect the curd and press it
Fully documentedCheese5.6 months – 6.1 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedFamily template, so the ingredients are the ones cooked alpine cheeses share. The specifications read give no amounts.
Raw cow milk · Comté PDO: never heated above 40 °C before renneting; Gruyère AOP: never cooled below 15 °C[comte-cdc][gruyere-blw]
Starter cultures · Comté PDO: a starter grown on raw whey is compulsory; Gruyère AOP: the dairy's own cultures[comte-cdc][gruyere-blw]
Propionic culture · For eyed types; the US Swiss standard requires propionic acid bacteria[cfr133-195]
Calf rennet[comte-cdc][gruyere-blw]
Salt · Dry salt or brine, then rubbed on the rind with brine or morge[comte-cdc][cfr133-195]
Starter: thermophilic cultures (natural whey or selected), plus Propionibacterium freudenreichii for eyed types

Total time across the recorded steps: 5.6 months – 6.1 months

Start
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up to 40 °C

What changes: Starter and calf rennet go into raw milk in a copper vat and it sets

Step 1 of 8
Set the milk in a copper vat
Time
Not documented
Temperature
up to 40 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Propionibacteria survive
S. thermophilus
Lactobacillus helveticus
L. delbrueckii
P. freudenreichii

Output: curd.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
gel
Colour
white to cream

Microbes at work in this step

thermophilic starters begin souring the milk

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

The curd is cut very fine and cooked to 52–59 °C, then pressed into very large wheels and ripened for months. The grana cheeses cook as hot but use part-skimmed milk and age longer; eyed types add a warm cellar for propionic bacteria.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Emmentaler AOPThe largest wheels; a warm cellar for big eyes; graded at 4 months.
  • Le Gruyère AOPFew or no eyes; smear rind; at least 5 months on spruce boards.
  • Comté AOPMade in fruitières; at least 120 days; few small eyes.
  • Beaufort AOPConcave sides from a wooden hoop.
  • AppenzellerSemi-hard alpine cheese washed with a herbal brine.
  • Jarlsberg, MaasdamWashed curd with propionic eyes; sweeter.

Made the cooked hard alpine cheese family way

Safety

The milk is raw. A 2026 review notes that in Swiss hard cheese the cook, a pH drop to about 5.3 within 24 h and long ripening together remove pathogens, though mycobacteria need the full ripening. The UK NHS counts hard cheeses such as gruyère as safe in pregnancy, unpasteurised or not. US Swiss cheese must be at least 60 days old.

Hazards the sources name: Raw-milk pathogens and mycobacteria; the cook, a fast pH drop and long ripening remove them in Swiss hard cheese.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

A 1115 charter of the Rougemont priory mentions pressed cooked cheese (Gruyère registration summary).

  1. [comte-cdc] INAO, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine Comté, version of 3 June 2013spec
  2. [gruyere-blw] Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, Résumé de la demande d'enregistrement du Gruyère (registration summary), 1999spec
  3. [emmentaler-ch] Emmentaler Switzerland (the Emmentaler AOP trade body), Maturing cheese, the secret of affinageweb
  4. [cfr133-195] US Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 133.195, Swiss and emmentaler cheesegov
  5. [dalmasso2012] Dalmasso M., Aubert J., Briard-Bion V. et al. 2012, A temporal-omic study of Propionibacterium freudenreichii CIRM-BIA1 adaptation strategies in conditions mimicking cheese ripening in the cold, PLoS ONE 7:e29083paper
  6. [tintrop2025] Tintrop L.K., Meola M., Stern M.T. et al. 2025, Analytical mapping of Swiss hard cheese to highlight the distribution of volatile compounds, aroma, and microbiota, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 73:7383–7392paper
  7. [bonilauri2026] Bonilauri P., Rosamilia A., Benedetti S., Daminelli P., Losio M.N. et al. 2026, Can the Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano production process guarantee a reduction in pathogenic microorganisms equivalent to the pasteurization process?, Italian Journal of Food Safety 15(1)paper
  8. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov