Emmentaler Schaukaserei

A Schaukaserei is a show cheese dairy where you can see cheese being made. At the Emmentaler Schaukaserei they make Emmentaler cheese, generaly known as Swiss Cheese in America. It's the one with the holes in it. As you can imagine, there are hundreds of different cheeses made in Switzerland, so there is no one cheese called Swiss Cheese in Switzerland. The Emmentaler cheese is so named because it comes from the Emmental region.

Here are some shots of the Emmental area on the drive to Affoltern, the village where the Schaukaserei is located. We were driving in and out of snow showers.

An old cheese makers cottage. The house was built in 1741.

I love the old fashioned gutters!

Entrance to the cheese making area.

Once a day they make cheese the old fashioned way, right there in the old cheese makers cottage. There are 200 liters of milk in the pot. Lactic acid and rennet are added to the milk and the milk is stirred over the fire until the curds reach the appropriate size ( about 35 minutes).

Cow bells hanging on the wall.

I'm too tall to live in this house!

Cellar under the house where the cheese is aged.

Views from the Schaukaserei.

Another old house at the Schaukaserei (not as old as the Cheese Makers cottage- this one is probably from the 1800's).

Inside the modern cheese making facility there is a cheese shop.

In the shop they also had Easter eggs made the traditional way for sale. They are made using natural dye (from plants). You pick little flowers and grasses and then you use cloth (or pantyhose!) to hold them tight to the outside of the egg while you put the egg in the dye. The result is so pretty!

Inside the more modern building you can see how cheese is made today. Here is milk being stirred in an industrial size pot.

Here is the cheese in the brine bath.

Here's how they used to stamp the outside of the cheese wheel with the type of cheese, the dairy infomation and the date.

Here is the cheese being aged.

Another shot of the countryside.

An old farmhouse/barn in Affoltern.

The old village storehouse for food and grain.