Ingredients
What to buy
- Vorarlberger Bergkäse PDO
- a wedge cut from the wheel
- ask the age
- young at 3 to 6 months
- or aged at 12 months or more
To serve on a board
- dark rye bread
- or Schüttelbrot
- butter
- Speck or cured ham
- pickled gherkins
- grapes or apple
- walnuts
To cook with
- grated, for Kasknöpfle
- or Käsespätzle
- or in a gratin
- or over soup
To drink
- a dry Austrian white
- or a local red
- or apple juice, most
Directions
- Wrap it in waxed paper, not cling film. Cheese needs to breathe.
- Keep it in the least cold part of the refrigerator. A cool cellar is better if you have one.
- Cut a generous centimetre off. Soft cheeses with mould should be discarded.
- Take it out of the refrigerator an hour before serving. Cold cheese tastes of very little.
- Cut wedges from the wheel shape. Cut so everyone gets rind and centre. Keep it for flavouring soup.
- Grate it rather than slicing it for melting. Hard cheese splits if overheated.
- Melt it gently. Hard cheeses are generally treated differently from soft.
Technique
- The atlas gives no method for making this cheese, deliberately. It holds a protected designation granted in 1997 defining the milk, the area and the method; it is a raw-milk cheese aged for months in controlled cellars, needing specific cultures, rennet and equipment for large wheels. The safety of a raw-milk cheese rests on the whole chain from herd to ageing, and it is not a home process.
- Ask how old it is when you buy. Age changes this cheese completely — young Bergkäse at three to six months is mild, supple and milky; aged at a year or more it is hard, fruity and sharp. Buy young for cooking, aged for eating on its own.
- The crunchy white crystals in aged cheese are amino acid crystals and a sign of proper ageing. They are not salt and not a fault.
- Take it out of the refrigerator a full hour before serving. Cold cheese tastes of very little, and this single step changes it more than anything else you can do.
- Wrap it in waxed or cheese paper, never cling film. Cheese needs to breathe, and plastic makes it sweat and taste of plastic. Keep it in the least cold part of the refrigerator.
- Surface mould on a cut face of a hard cheese can be cut away — take a generous centimetre. That applies to hard cheese only; soft cheeses with mould should be discarded.
- Cut wedges so everyone gets rind and centre. The paste near the rind tastes different from the middle, and cutting fairly is a real courtesy.
- Grate it for melting rather than slicing, and melt it gently. Hard cheese splits if overheated, the fat separating into something stringy and greasy.
- Keep the rind for flavouring soup. It is edible but hard, and most people cut it off.
- Silage feeding is not permitted for this cheese — the cows eat grass and hay, and that restriction is part of the designation. Alpine pasture holds a great diversity of plants, and that diversity shows in the milk and then in the cheese.
- Alpine hard cheeses exist to store a summer’s milk through the winter. Cutting the curd very fine and cooking it expels whey, which is what makes a cheese dry enough to keep.
- Advice on raw-milk cheese in pregnancy varies by country and hard cheeses are generally treated differently from soft. The atlas records that the question exists, makes no medical claim, and leaves it to a doctor or midwife.
Substitutions
- Comté, Gruyère or Beaufort are the closest available alpine relatives.
- Emmental substitutes for melting, though it is milder.
- Allgäuer Bergkäse from Germany is a close neighbour.
- Young Bergkäse suits cooking; aged suits a cheeseboard.
- Any hard alpine cheese works in Kasknöpfle or Käsespätzle.
- Tiroler Graukäse is the lean sour-milk cheese from the same tradition and a quite different thing.
Variations
- Vorarlberger Alpkäse is the summer-dairy cheese made up on the alp itself.
- Tiroler Bergkäse is the neighbouring Tyrolean version.
- Kasknöpfle is the Vorarlberg dish built on it.
- Käsespätzle is the wider Austrian and German equivalent.
- Brettljause, the cold board, is where it appears alongside Speck.
- Tiroler Graukäse comes from the same dairies as a by-product tradition.
History
Made in the Bregenzerwald from summer alpine milk in small village dairies; it gained PDO protection in 1997.
Frequently asked questions
What is Vorarlberger Bergkäse?
Vorarlberger Bergkäse is a cheese & dairy from Austria: hard raw-milk alpine cheese, firm and fruity, aged for months. Made in the Bregenzerwald from summer alpine milk in small village dairies; it gained PDO protection in 1997.
How long does Vorarlberger Bergkäse take to make?
Vorarlberger Bergkäse takes 10 minutes of preparation and none of cooking. The recipe makes buy 80 g per person. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Vorarlberger Bergkäse?
Yes, within limits. Comté, Gruyère or Beaufort are the closest available alpine relatives. Emmental substitutes for melting, though it is milder. Allgäuer Bergkäse from Germany is a close neighbour. Young Bergkäse suits cooking; aged suits a cheeseboard. Any hard alpine cheese works in Kasknöpfle or Käsespätzle. Tiroler Graukäse is the lean sour-milk cheese from the same tradition and a quite different thing.
What is the most important thing to get right in Vorarlberger Bergkäse?
Grate it rather than slicing it for melting. Hard cheese splits if overheated.
