Sunday in Switzerland we went on a day excursion up to the town of Gruyères. Our aims were threefold (and delicious):
1) Visit the Gruyère cheese factory
2) Visit the Castle at Gruyères
3) Visit the Cailler chocolate factory
We all piled into David and Callie's car and got on our way. Besides Friday (when they picked us up at the airport) I hadn't been in a car for a long time! It was kind of nice.
I also experienced something else that I hadn't seen in awhile.
Snow.
I can't say I've really missed it. All in one day, we experienced sun, rain, snow, sleet and hail. Just like home! Except I was in Switzerland.
No worries, though! We still had a good time.
First, I would like to point out that the name of the town/region, Gruyères, ends with an "s." The name of the cheese, Gruyère, does not. They are pronounced the same way, and the cheese is named after the town (or region), but I still am not sure about the reason behind the spelling discrepancy.
In fact, many cheese are named for the regions they come from. While varying methods for making and processing cheese account for different types of cheese, the type of milk and region it comes from also plays largely into different types and flavors.
Gruyère cheese is a hard cheese, made from the milk of cows that graze in the Gruyères region. The local flora flavor the milk uniquely, which then flavors the cheese uniquely. Other countries are much more particular about how cheese can be marketed and sold. If you're selling Gruyère cheese, it had better come from the Gruyères region. However, it is my understanding that the US does not regulate this very closely, so I don't know that the Gruyère cheese you buy in the US is made from the milk of these particular Swiss cows. If someone would like to run to the grocery store and look at where the Gruyère cheeses sold there are made and then report back, I would be most appreciative!
You see that metal plate with the raised letters on it? They put that around the cheese wheel when they put the curds in, so after the cheese is formed, it is noted that it was made at this factory in Gruyères.
For those of you who are curious, here is the basic process they use to make the cheese:
1) Get milk from cows.
2) Heat milk
3) Add rennet. This actually comes from the intestines of baby cows and makes the milk curdle.
4) Stir it up really well so things curdle nicely.
5) Separate the curds from the whey
6) Put the curds into wheel-shapers
7) Apply pressure and rotate occasionally to squeeze out the rest of the whey.
8) Salt bath! Remove the cheese from the forms and soak in a saltwater bath for a long time. This forms the rind.
9) Aging: salted wheels are aged for several months. The longer the aging, the less sweet the flavor.
I'm sure I missed a step or two in there, but that's the basic idea.
As part of our tour we got samples of cheese of varying ages so we could taste the difference. I think I liked the 8 month best.
Who's excited about cheese and doesn't know how to button her coat? THIS GIRL!
Stop 2: Château du Gruyères
After the cheese factory we went up to the old town of Gruyères, where there was a castle. I'm so glad we got this picture of us with the town and mountains in the background on the way in, because it was foggy when we left.
This is standing near the entrance to the castle, overlooking the church.
Castle courtyard!
Castle kitchen. It's so...Skyrim... isn't it?
This is a real hand. A real, old hand. There were all kinds of rumors and legends about it, but I think they determined that it was basically some type of military trophy to represent someone's defeat of someone. (I'm so good with history, huh?)
This is the dining room... that is not wallpaper, that is hand-painted on there!
The garden.
This was a.... rampart? The army would keep lookout here.
Nice view of the mountains from the castle balcony.
Room full of hunting trophies.
I think that these wall are now a replica, but you can see in the upper-right corner of the photo below, they peeled it away to show what was originally on the wall.
This was walking along the rampart that was in the pictures of the garden.
Castle in the snow!
How awesome is this lookout? Okay, maybe the view is slightly obscured by the fog.
Kelly and Callie-- aren't they so cute?
Stop 3: Maison Cailler
Our final stop was the Callier chocolate factory. To be honest, we were tired of carrying the camera and taking picture, and there really wasn't much that was photo-worthy. The highlight was definitely that after the tour, we were lead into a CHOCOLATE TASTING ROOM.
Yes, you read that right. In this magical room, they had almost every type of chocolate they make and YOU COULD EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WANTED. Callie mentioned something about trying to taste every single kind, but that wouldn't be possible, and I said "Challenge accepted.". However, after my first piece of white chocolate I quickly talked myself out of that. If you're going to eat something you may as well enjoy it right? No use wasting calories on white chocolate.
I didn't take any pictures, so thank you, Sister, for these!
Eat ALL the chocolate! Ok, I didn't, but I'm pretty sure Tim did. (Did you know Tim is more of a chocoholic than I am? True story. But I'm actually not much of a chocoholic)
To cap off the day, we went back to Callie and David's for raclette. I actually first read about raclette here, and tasted it once at Sapphire's house, but this was my first meal of raclette.
Here's how raclette works.
Put the cheese in the "shovel."
Put the shovel in here. It's hot in here. It's also hot on top of there. That's beef and smoked salmon sizzling away on the top.
Once the cheese is melted, put it on top of your cooked potatoes, and enjoy it with your meat and pickles. While you're devouring this, cook some more cheese.
So delicious! I need to look into buying a raclette set when we get home.
So that was Sunday. Only one more day left in Switzerland, but it was a big one...CERN!
Kelly, Callie, Tim, and David: Please feel free to correct me on anything, or to add anymore information. I'm sure I got a lot of facts wrong. Thanks!
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