Visit to the Cheese "Factory"!

Today we took a cultural fieldtrip to a small, local mountain cheese producing business.

The process begins in this semi-stinky room. Fresh milk is brought in my local farmers every morning. On this machine the milk is measured and the quality is determined.

The milk stews around in this giant vat for awhile, heated to somewhere around 100 degrees F. So the milk is warmed, but not pasteurized.

The milk is put in these cylindrical things (like as seen in the first picture) and enzymes are added to begin the cheese-making process. The cylinders are turned every once in a while, so that the whey can drain out, and the cheese gets more compacted.

Cheese wheels soaking in a salt bath.

Cheese awards!

These cheese wheels have been sitting in this closet for about a year. This room was severely stinky! On the other side of the room were shelves with younger cheese, only about 4 months old. The cheese does not need to be pasteurized because it sits for so long.

At the end of our tour, the Kaesemeister (cheese master) let us sample the old the young cheese. I preferred the young cheese much more. It was smoother and had a good taste, as opposed to the older cheese, which was very sharp tasting and strong!

On the bus ride back (the bus ride...on very narrow, curvy Alpine mtn roads!) I enjoyed my cheese samplings and a "milk drink" which is like thick milk flavored like a milkshake...mmm.

Because I love cottage cheese, I asked the Kaesemeister if he could make cottage cheese, since whey is a by-product...but he said that no, he could not. Cottage cheese requires different equipment, a different process, and pasteurized milk. Interesting :)