Summary: One of the most loved products created by milk is cheese. And in this region of Ohio, Swiss cheese reigns as the number one favorite.

By Jennifer Kneuss
June 1, 2011
467

Summary: One of the most loved products created by milk is cheese. And in this region of Ohio, Swiss cheese reigns as the number one favorite. In the Swiss cheese business, eyes are always on the eyes. That is, the eyes of the cheese maker are always carefully scrutinizing the small holes, or eyes, as they are called, of the end product. We are very hands on, and also very people oriented, explained Tom Beck, plant supervisor for the Sugarcreek production facility for Guggisberg Cheese, which makes approximately 100,000 pounds of cheese each day. Cheese making is a science, but it is also definitely an art. It takes time to learn. Beck and his employees strive for creating Swiss cheese with eyes approximately the size of a quarter throughout. Our cheese is in high demand, noted the plants quality assurance director, Jennifer George, as she motioned around the busy rooms filled with cheese in all stages of development. We also have full traceability. We can trace the milk from the very beginning to the actual retail stores. This is a FDA requirement. We check for quality, bacteria levels, somatic cells, fat and protein content. The best quality cheese comes from the best quality milk. The pH of the milk is also checked, and it needs to be around 5.2 for Swiss cheese to age properly. Every single vat of cheese is tested for fat and moisture content, and cream is removed in order to create a standardized product. After being pasteurized, the milk then goes to the milk vats. We then add the cultures, and they start to grow and break down the lactose into lactic acid. Then we add the rennet, which causes the protein to start to gel and thicken to almost a pudding-like consistency. When that milk starts to mass, we can start to cut it into large chunks, and we stir it and condense it until it becomes smaller and smaller. As it shrinks, it releases the whey, which is the water, sugar, and whey protein, so then you are basically condensing your milk down into a curd, and you are eliminating the water, continued the quality control director, as she motioned toward head cheese maker Marvin Raber, who was pouring rennet into a vat. Then we cut and stir the curd and then cook it, as we are trying to get rid of more moisture. It then gets pumped over into our pressing system. In the press, we start pressing the curd together, and then we are removing all of the whey. That is an overnight process. The next morning we take off the presses and cut the cheese into 200 pound blocks. Then we put it into our brine tank, where it will be overnight again. It is at this point that the eyes begin to take shape. After it is brined, the cheese gets wrapped and crated for aging. That is when the eyes develop. It takes about 30 days or so for the eyes to fully form to make a nice Swiss cheese. There is a culture that makes those eyes, and it likes to eat up the sugars and energy in the cheese. That produces carbon dioxide, as well as flavor compounds that give you the characteristic nutty flavor that goes with Swiss cheese. The perfect cheese has uniform cheese about the size of a quarter. The baby Swiss is a milder, sweeter cheese, and the eyes are about the size of a dime. The baby Swiss isnt aged as long as the Swiss, George explained. The finished product is tested, and at this point, the Swiss cheese is ready to delight cheese lovers across the United States. It is cut, wrapped, and shipped out to satisfied customers.

Summary: One of the most loved products created by milk is cheese. And in this region of Ohio, Swiss cheese reigns as the number one favorite.

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