Not unique - there's a cheese-shop up the road that sells a mature Gruyère that is quite different from their standard-price Gruyère, which in turn is quite unlike supermarket Gruyère. And that's all on the Swiss side of the border - Comté is the same stuff, but made 100 metres away.
> Is the true problem where the cheese originates from, or the lack of taste?
I would say both if the name comes from a specific place.
I mentionned the Comté earlier. It is made with the same methods as the Gruyère, from Milk of same or similar cows, all pertaining of the same families. Both taste very good yet you can't mistake one for another. The only difference is where the cows live and some difference in cows race repartition in the respective area. Mostly Montbéliardes and Simmental in Franche-Comté, more Holsteins and Red-Holsteins in Gruyère.
> But generally Americans who buy higher-end European foodstuffs expect Europe to have strict controls on what's allowed to be called what on a label exported from the EU.
It is still largely political.
As a french guy who lived half his life in Switzerland, I find it a disgrace that french and us companies are allowed to make and sell some tasteless cheese called gruyere and emmental when they are not originating from Gruyères (a Swiss village and area) or the valley of Emmen (again in Switzerland).
If you want a similar french cheese you should look for Comté (not the same flavor as Gruyère AOC but also very tasty), otherwise eat the real deal, and a matured (at least 12 months) Gruyère AOC from Switzerland. If you want variety there is a whole load of other really nice swiss and french cheeses that tastes very good and do not steal someone else's name. Special mention to l'Etivaz.
That's a strong statement. I've yet to come to anything even remotely close to the taste of aged (2-3 years minimum, when grains form inside) hard cheeses like Comte, Gruyere, Beaufort and probably dozen or two more, mostly french. Copies I've had, sometimes even more expensive than original, can't seriously compare (ie french versions of Gruyere vs original AOC variant, and one would expect that French would get this right).
If you actually done that comparison in person, then I believe you, otherwise, buy a plane ticket after covid. What folks here can create from raw cow/goat/sheep/buffalo milk and some bacteria (and/or worms) is ridiculously good, an universe of tastes on its own.
And I haven't even started into properly artisanal, often local-only cheeses. They are not exported even within their own country, forget to see it anywhere across the pond.
It's hard to taste a picture! I'm not saying they're exactly the same, but they're made in extremely similar ways.
I'm from a less cheese-y part of Europe, but isn't Comté often called Gruyère de Comté for a reason? Of course they'll taste very different when aged for very different amount of times, but I've found them to be decently similar when aged for similar amounts of time.
> I find it a disgrace that french and us companies are allowed to make and sell some tasteless cheese called gruyere and emmental when they are not originating from Gruyères (a Swiss village and area) or the valley of Emmen (again in Switzerland).
Same goes for brie, camembert, feta, mozzarella, ... The "real" thing is as great as the fakes are terrible.
I don't understand the downvotes. The parent suggests going there for the town, so why not for the cheese?
Just in case someone thinks this is a lame swiss joke: Gruyère is also the name of a _very_ famous cheese from that town, mostly used for Fondue and Quiche Lorraine.
Until 1976, I had never heard of Comté; they sold that cheese as Gruyére, even though it was made in France. In that year, the AOC regulations came fully into force, and it became illegal to sell cheese made in France as Gruyére.
There are many regional variations and qualities of Comté, too.
When De Gaulle asked "How can you govern a country with 200 different cheeses", he was underestimating badly.
> Especially odd that in the United States "Swiss Cheese" refers to one specific cheese which is the Emmentaler [1] when there are so many different kinds of cheese in Switzerland.
I don’t think it’s anymore odd than “French Fries” or “Greek Yogurt”. People like simple connections. Somebody long ago (perhaps unintentionally) did some good branding.
> Good quality local cheese does exist, but you're spending upwards of $20-$30/kg. That makes it something you only buy on really special occasions. Given that in Europe you can buy cheese that tastes better but is a tenth of the cost, I have to question the prices in Canada.
You are quite deluded. Quality cheese in France costs around 18-25€/kg, say 20€/kg, that's $30/kg. Cheap one costs 8-12€/kg, that's still $12-$18/kg.
Good luck competing in any economical sense if you're importing cows from Parma to give them uncontaminated feed from Parma then aging the cheese in an artificial climate like Parma's.
Corners are invariably cut. Do they matter? Maybe, maybe not. But why do you need to name your cheese after a region it's not from? Grana padano's done fine for itself, for example.
>In the USA they typically do something different: put the name in whatever product that barely resembles the original, like they did with their “manchego” cheese, a label put in all kinds of cheese-like products.
For many cheeses they don't have much off a choice. Since (young) raw milk cheeses can't be sold in the states they try to get as close as they can, but usually only succeed in looks, rarely in taste.
> "‘Gruyere’ can be used to describe US cheeses, court rules"
> A US appeals court has ruled that the word “gruyere” is a common label for cheese and cannot be reserved just for the kind made originally in France or Switzerland.
This will cause trouble for trade deals between the EU and USA, since Europe wants to protect their regional 'brands' in a similar way to trademarks.
If any Europeans want a good laugh-slash-cry, search 'cheese' on a Canadian supermarket site.
(I'm sure Canadians make nice stuff too, and why wouldn't Quebec produce plenty of 'French' cheeses, but you'd have to learn what the rough equivalents are called, because it's not going to have its protected-origin name. (And then there's all the stuff that's sliced or shredded or squirty, and heavily coloured, that seems way more popular in NA. But I don't include that in being sure they make 'nice stuff'. ;)))
Not unique - there's a cheese-shop up the road that sells a mature Gruyère that is quite different from their standard-price Gruyère, which in turn is quite unlike supermarket Gruyère. And that's all on the Swiss side of the border - Comté is the same stuff, but made 100 metres away.
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