A hard-to-find, beautifully matured, Swiss mountain cheese
An exceptionally delicious cheese, rarely seen in the U.S. The name Hobelkäse translates to “plane cheese”—not as in something to take on the plane with you (though its firm texture would also make it good for that), but rather cheese that you eat by slicing off thin slices with a cheese plane. It’s one of the tastiest cheeses I’ve tried in the last year! Evidence that something can be both delicate and subtle, yet wonderfully full of flavor at the same time.
Hobelkäse of this quality is not easy to find even in Switzerland. It’s made high up in the Alps, in the Swiss canton of Bern, by cheesemaker Ernst Reichenbach, his wife June Reichenbach, their children, and a dozen grandchildren. Next year will mark the family’s tenth anniversary of doing this work. Their Hobelkäse is very special, highly prized, Alpage cheese—it’s made only between mid-June and mid-September when the family’s herd of 18 Simmental cows are up in the mountains at an altitude of about 5000 feet. There, the cows graze in beautiful Alpine pastures. The diversity of the pasture contributes to the great complexity of the milk, and hence, the finished cheese.
To relay the beauty of the daily work of dairy farmers and cheesemakers like the Reichenbachs, I’ll come back to a poem by M.C. Richards:
The cows, John, the cows are banging their udders like soft cymbals, and the milkers are playing the teats like bell ropes tugging and letting go. The music, my God, the music! The history of Hobelkäse goes all the way back to the start of the 16th century, showing up in Swiss documents from the period. Ernst Reichenbach’s production methods are remarkably close to what was done so many centuries ago. The cheese is made only from fresh raw milk, working over open wood fires in traditional, open copper kettles. Ernst makes only one to three wheels a day. The wheels we have now are about two years old. They have a complex flavor and a great clean finish, along with some of those lovely little tyrosine crystals that come in Parmigiano Reggiano.
Every thin slice of the Berner Hobelkäse brings beautiful hints of brown butter and butterscotch. While many mountain cheeses have a lot of deep bass notes of flavor, the Hobelkäse is mostly delicate high notes. To eat it at its best, use a cheese plane (or potato peeler) to remove thin slices. Eat them as is. Or put them on slices of Bakehouse Vollkornbrot, Dinklebrot, or other great Bakehouse bread. It is great on the Roadhouse bread with a generous spread of that Vermont Creamery cultured butter that’s created such a culinary buzz around the ZCoB. Or lay the slices atop a salad! I also enjoy eating it broken into chunks (as one would eat Parmigiano Reggiano)—the rough surface makes for a more interesting and engaging eating experience.
