Gailtaler Almkäse

What is Gailtaler Almkäse Cheese?

Gailtaler Almkäse comes from the alpine pastures of the Gailtal in Austria. Fourteen mountain dairies belonging to the Gailtaler Almsennereien association make roughly 40 tonnes of it each year, and the name is protected as a g.U. cheese.

Cheesemaking in the valley shows up in the land register of the Count of Görz between 1375 and 1381, and a detailed account of Gailtal alpine farming survives from 1876. Until the middle of the 19th century a good share of the local cheese was still made half fat and without pressing, in what was called the Friulian manner.

Production follows the alpine season from May to September, with the raw milk processed in small operations and still partly on the pasture itself. Nothing goes in beyond raw milk, lactic acid cultures, rennet, then salt and water for the brine bath and the rind; silage feeding is banned. After the rennet sets the milk at 32 degrees Celsius (90 F), the curd is cut into coffee bean sized grains, heated to between 45 and 54 degrees Celsius (113 to 129 F), hooped, and pressed for several hours. The wheels spend one or two days in brine, and brushing with lightly salted smear water shapes the ripening. Alpine cheese is always made in wheels, never in blocks.

The body is a firm hard cheese with sparse, round, evenly sized holes, and weights run anywhere from 0.5 to 35 kilograms (1 to 77 pounds). Austrian alpine cheeses of this kind ripen longer than the semi hard Swiss ones, which gives them a broader flavor.

It is usually cut and eaten with bread or with boiled potatoes, and it also works fried or baked into a gratin. A local specialty is Frigga, made with Gailtaler Speck and Gailtaler Almkäse.