....(continued from last week).......The chain hoist sets the bag of curd formed by holding the corners of the cheesecloth into a wooden mold called a hoop. A large stone, the largest the cheesemaker could lift by himself, is placed on the hoop cover and the whey is pressed out of the curd, forming a young cheese. This process, you are figuring out, is designed to do all by yourself. A one man operation...........
....This is a hoop. A cheesecloth is draped over it for the display. A wreath is hanging in the middle, to make it look nice in our entryway. The shiny object to the right is a cheese knife, usually seen in the old-fashioned store where you pointed to the cheese you wanted and the knife was used to cut off an appropriate sized hunk for you to buy. The rake-looking device also seen is for raking curds on a drain table. This has nothing to do with Swiss Cheese, rather some lesser cheese like cheddar, or colby, or parmesan, actually most other more ordinary cheeses (kidding).......
....the cheeses, or "wheels" are placed in a hot room and turned and cleaned from time to time as they "cured". The bacteria in Swiss cheese give off a gas as they grow and the gas forms a bubble. The bubbles become, you guessed it, the holes...............
....Mom's description has a "typo". "curd" in the third line is actually "cured"..............
....The cheese is checked for acidity, tasted, and inspected for the proper holes. At the right time, known only to the experienced cheesemaker, the bacterial action is ended by simply moving the cheese to a cold room. Here it ages for weeks to months. Aged Swiss is not popular today as it once was. My Grandfather used to say, "never bite Swiss cheese that does not bite you back" I can remember the sharp taste, but prefer the milder, almost nutty taste of a good Swiss. A family tradition at all our gatherings is a variant called "Baby Swiss". I leave this opening for Rex to blog sometime soon on that heavenly experience............
....the last picture takes us back to the beginning or this blog series, to my Grandfather. The saw belonged to him and he used it to cut wood for the boiler of the factory he ran. My Dad's factory, as we can plainly see, was way modern and had a fuel oil fired boiler, making this old saw a relic, well, for a museum. Thanks for touring the Swiss Cheese Museum.
Next is the Medical Museum, but not for small children or the faint of heart. Stay tuned.
Uncle Hans
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