On Emmenthaler

Even Charles de Gaulle complained how hard it is to rule a country with so many varieties of cheese. France has plenty of them too.

Swiss cheese is actually just one of the varieties that imitate Emmenthaller, there are many others such as Maasdam or Jarlsberg. In Europe they named them after the locality that invented them, while in the US after the country that they imitate. They are all somewhat different from one another when it comes to taste, but all have these holes or eyes that Emmenthaler was first to have.

The US however has one cheese named after a locality and that is Monterrey Jack, I like it. It is like Cheddar but moister and does not crumble that easy.

Emmenthaler actually developed holes as a defect of sorts and creators thought of ways to get rid of them at first. Similar how champagne creators at first tried hard to eliminate these pesky bubbles from their wine. Eventually it became a sort of identity and thought after gimmick.