1920 – A 100 year look back at Cheesemaking in America

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

Besides my love for cheese, I also love family history…As a result, I have access to a lot of old newspaper databases and decided recently to take a look back 100 years to 1920. I remembered some of the highlights from this era from my history lessons…World War I had just ended and the nations were learning to work together again; women gained the right to vote, prohibition has stopped all of the legal sales of alcohol, the population was a third of what it is today, and Jazz music was all the rage…But what about the world of cheese?? I decided to take a look…The following article is a shared here in its entirety for your reading pleasure. It is from Page 11 of The Sacramento Bee Newspaper, 17 August 1920:

HOLES IN SWISS CHEESE INDICATIVE OF ITS QUALITY

By Frederic J. Haskin

   WASHINGTON (D.C.), August 12 – The mystery of how the holes get into Swiss cheese, which has so long baffled the cheese experts of this country, has been solved. As a consequence, America is pitching into the Swiss cheese industry on a large scale. Already two carloads of American-Swiss cheese riddled with holes just like those made in the Alps, have been shipped to Switzerland itself: so that by now the news of America’s latest project must be pretty well circulated throughout the original home of the cheese with the hole.

   It is too soon for us to get any official word as to how the Swiss are taking this invasion into their favorite industry. It is believed that they will be somewhat alarmed, for the United States always has been a large consumer of Switzerland’s best. But if we can make it satisfactorily for ourselves, and enough of it, the Alpine cheese makers may have to look about for new customers.

Has a Hold.

   If you are not a Swiss cheese addict, you may not realize that this delicacy has quite a hold on the American people. Switzerland ships 20,000,000 of it to this country every year, and Swiss cheeseries over here produce another 20,000,000, though up to now a good deal of the domestic product has been equipped with a very inferior grade of holes.

   The formula for making the cheese has never been a secret, but it was always supposed that the air or grass of Switzerland contained some magic ingredient necessary to produce the best holes, and until recently the results obtained by cheese makers in this country have served to confirm the impression.

Holes Must Be Right.

   Holes, or eyes as they are technically called, are so important in Swiss cheese because they are an indication of good flavor. If the eyes are large, round, glossy at the edges, and evenly distributed, the cheese has all of the earmarks of a masterpiece. If the holes are flat, small, or altogether lacking, the cheese is likely to be deficient in flavor.

   Some years ago the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture decided to find out why our home-grown Swiss cheese lacked the proper characteristics, as it so often did. Inquiries put to Swiss dairymen in Wisconsin showed that the Swiss cheese makers knew only the formula to follow and nothing of the chemistry involved. They attributed the less satisfactory results achieved in this country to the different surroundings, though in Wisconsin they found conditions most similar to their native land.

Experts Busy.

   Even a visit to Switzerland revealed no sure-fire way to getting the holes into the cheese. So the cheese experts went back to their laboratories. From a first-class imported Swiss cheese they extracted several thousand kinds of bacteria, and each of these bugs they put to the test to see which one was the hole maker. Different mediums had to be used, which complicated matters, out finally after twelve years, the elusive bug was located.

   It must not be inferred that the bugs mentioned eat their way methodically through the cheese, leaving a train of carefully arranged holes. Gases are produced by the action of certain bacteria in the curds, and the holes result from the liberation of the gas.

   In Switzerland, where this particular kind of cheese has been made for so many years, the organisms which develop the best holes and flavor have become plentiful. Whether they originate in the air, milk or grass is not thoroughly understood. In this country they must be supplied by cultures until we get a good start in Swiss cheese making.

   With the bugs catalogued, it is comparatively easy to diagnose cases in which an inferior cheese has been obtained. Pinholes, so often seen, are the result of poor grades of milk, improper handling or lack of the necessary cultures. The Dairy Division has found that the use of the missing bacteria in cultures will overcome some of the defects and improve the flavor of the cheese.

We Make Roquefort, Too.

   While the Swiss cheese mystery was being scientifically unraveled, advances have been made in another line of cheese history. The Dairy Division reports that a way to make the Roquefort variety in this country has been worked out.

   Roquefort cheese, you know, has for centuries been produced around the little French village of Roquefort. The flavor depends upon the development of a certain kind of mold which is entirely different from the ordinary green mold which might be sprinkled on, or from the mold which cheese on a pantry shelf acquires.

   Roquefort mold is produced by means of the peculiar caves in Southern France. These caves have been formed by the slipping rocks at the base of the mountains. Currents of cool air circulate steadily through the underground grottoes, keeping the atmosphere damp and fresh. It takes two months to get a Roquefort cheese ready for market, and a good part of this time the cheese spends on shelves in the caves, acquiring the important mold.

   In France, the mold is started by a special kind of bread which is moistened, allowed to mold, dried and ground into powder. This powder is sprinkled over each layer of the curds. Holes are punched in the layer, so that the mold from the bread, aided by the dampness of the atmosphere, spread through the cheese until the entire layer is veined with bluish green threats of mold.

   The Government scientists started their mold by taking some from a piece of French cheese and inserting at into a loaf of bread. This produced very good bread crumbs, but America had nothing like the caves of Roquefort. The scientists tried ordinary refrigeration, but the mold failed to develop properly, and in many cases did not develop at all.

Reproduced Cave Conditions.

   Finally, they realized that the exact cave conditions – temperature, humidity, and ventilation – must be reproduced artificially, and after years of experimental work, a special air-conditioning apparatus was perfected which took place of the caves.

   Besides the caves of Roquefort, the French thought that sheep’s milk was requisite for making Roquefort cheese. Half a million sheep are pastured near Roquefort just to provide milk for the nearby cheeseries.

   Dairymen here tried cow’s milk as a basis for Roquefort cheese, and it was successful. With the equipment developed by the Government, Roquefort cheese has in the past year been made commercially from cow’s milk for the first time in this country. It has been put on the market to be sold in competition with the French cheese and sold with good results.

   Our home-made Roquefort cheese is regarded by some connoisseurs as a little too golden for classic beauty, but this is a trifling flaw and has no appreciable effect upon the taste.

   The work of the Dairy Division has aroused a good deal of interest in the cheese making. Several new Swiss factories have been started in California, while Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, always centers of the American cheese industry, see new hope for America dominating the cheese business of the world. 

This story ran in more than a dozen large newspapers across the country.

Meanwhile over in France…Modern Government control of agricultural products in France had been in the works since 1905, which granted the government authority to define the official boundaries for the production of certain agricultural products. A second law was passed on May 6, 1919, for the Protection of the Place of Origin. It specified the region and commune in which a given product must be manufactured, and gave the courts power to act in cases where the regulations were not being followed.

These rulings helped to create the appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), which translates as "controlled designation of origin". It is the French certification, granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products. 

Because of its long recorded history, Roquefort was the first French cheese to be protected under this new ruling on July 26, 1925, protecting it from copies around the world. 

Switzerland also took notice and fought long and hard to protect Swiss Emmentaler as well…It finally became a protected AOC cheese on October 6, 2006. Emmentaler went on to became a protected AOP cheese in 2014, to match the AOP Protection under the European Union.

A long post to read through this week, but SO important to understand the context (and struggles) that led to the over 200 protected cheeses around the globe.

Until next week,

Trevor