Sbrinz

What is Sbrinz Cheese?

Sbrinz comes from Central Switzerland and probably takes its name from Brienz in the Bernese Oberland. In the 16th and 17th centuries that town served as a collecting point for cheeses from the Oberland and Central Switzerland, and most of what arrived there was carried across the Alps. Buyers in northern Italy started calling it Sbrinz after the place, and the name travelled back into Swiss use. A second explanation points to the Lombard dialect word sbrinzo, a term for hard cheese.

It is one of the oldest European cheeses. The Celtic ancestors of the Swiss made cheese centuries before the birth of Christ, and the Caseus Helveticus mentioned by a Roman writer in the first century AD is probably Sbrinz. Documents from 1530 in the state archive in Bern refer to it. Sbrinz received AOC certification in 2001, replaced by AOP certification in 2013, which sets rules for the origin of the milk and for how the cheese is made.

Only local cow's milk goes into it, and just 42 dairies in Central Switzerland produce it. The cheese stays in the region until it is ready to eat. It must ripen 16 months before it can be sold as Sbrinz, and the full flavour arrives after roughly 24 to 30 months in storage. This is an extra hard full fat cheese with about 40 to 45 percent fat in the dry matter, as hard as Berner Hobelkäse and harder than any other Swiss cheese.

In Swiss kitchens it is most often grated, over pasta for example. It is also eaten in small pieces with wine, or planed into thin slices. Tradition says never to cut it: grate it, break it with a special cutter, or plane it. Bread and butter is the usual companion.