Swiss Alpine Pasture Cheese Cro�te

William Bachmann

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:41:52 GMT

Lovely story and a better recipe than the one on the Swiss Tourism website ! You made me homesick.....

wayne

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 08:48:06 GMT

Merci beaucoup. Great recipe and memories of Verbier.

faith unasco

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:20:22 GMT

I am amazed of a very beautiful scenery all over Switzerland, the making and process of different delicacies of swiss cheese., the landscape wherein you can view the wide landscape for the cows and buffallo.Great country how I wish I could visit you.faith

Kristin

Sun, 10 May 2009 17:52:36 GMT

This is just the sort of cheesemaking set up I"d love to have!! Pastures and all. Perhaps someday!!

fx

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:30:28 GMT

Thanks Melit, for sharing those beloved reminiscences of my country! Yes we are such a small nation that we don"t care for wars or trying to influence other countries" affairs. And when a part of Switzerland wants independence, we have a procedure in our constitution to make a new canton so that they can rule their own affairs, so there is very few regional resentment like you find in many great nations across the world.

melit

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:11:01 GMT

    As a little girl growing up in the tropical country
of the Phillipines,I"m always fascinated by the magnificent
pictures of the Swiss Alps that I see in the glossy calendars.My entry on my friend"s "slum book" would read
"Someday,to own a chalet", when asked about my dream.
    Some years ago,my sister and my parents took a "Whirlwind trip of Europe",a three weeks tour that took us to Switzerland.Unfortunately,I was not able to buy my dream chalet.
    Our group was the noisiest because we are really having a grand time.While having lunch in one of the restaurants,I
commented to the tour guide that the place is so quiet.
And this is what he told us and can"t forget,"Switzerland
is politically and financially stable country.People have
no problems,that"s why they are so serious and don"t smile."
    FX can you tell me more about your people? We learn in school that your country is a peace loving nation,the home of the Red Cross.Tell me that the tour guide was wrong.
    My love of Switzerland is rekindled in your site
and after 24 years one of my precious possession is still a gold charm bracelet bought in Bucherer with a replica of a Swiss chalet.
    Thanks again for your incredible site.
    Melit
    Southern California,USA

fx

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:30:31 GMT

WC thanks and glad you like it!

W.C.

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:07:19 GMT

Francois - Enjoy the articles and want to express admiration and thanks for the very good accompanying photographs. They really bring to life your words, and often make me hungry for the food in the article.

W.C.

fx

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:20:54 GMT

Jay thanks for visiting and glad you liked the article!

jay furman

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:19:53 GMT

Having endured the beautiful portraits; both written and visual, I now understand why my Sister in Law has been residing in Lucerne for many years. The beauty of the country, the charm of the smaller or older cities is quite taking. My experiments in haute cuisine have been enhanced by your pieces....carry-on and of course, without any doubt - Bon Appetite!
ajf-wisconsin...on call, working less, enjoying in vida de loca.....

fx

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:22:22 GMT

Laura, there are such chalets all over the Alps but the cheesemakers move from one to the other as the pastures get grazed to the ground by their charge. So the guy at Les Alpettes might not be there when you visit. The place is http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=semsales&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.751524,74.970703&ie=UTF8&ll=46.543049,6.9472&spn=0.005099,0.009152&t=h&z=17

English is not spoken but if you are friendly and smiling you"ll get a good welcome. Just point at the cheese and wave a banknote if you must, and you"ll get to buy some. Please read my other cheesemaking articles for more chalets like this. The season is now over, they bring the cows up from July to September, weather permitting.

Laura

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:21:51 GMT

My friend and I are in Zermatt, Switzerland. We read your article before we left the States and thought it would be a great adventure to try and find the chalet. I googled the Les Alpettes cow-mountain and found the Les Alpettes Road, Semsales, Switzerland - sbout 10 miles from where E27 parts from E62 (Rte 9) near the old rte 12. Is this the same? Could you provide directions and/or instructions how we can find the chalet? We have a Swiss Saver Pass (for buses, rail, etc.) Oh yes, and we only speak English. Will that be a problem? Please reply to laurarasmussen@onebox.com. Thank you, Laura

fx

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:02:17 GMT

Joanie, the cro�te you had in the restaurant is probably nothing compared to the one you can prepare right in your kitchen with the cheese you have probably bought in Switzerland!

Joanie

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:38:00 GMT

I truly enjoyed your article. I just returned from Gryon, Switzerland and ate the Croute in a little non-tourist restaurant Passa Nova in Gryon. The Croute was excellent with a regional white wine. The Swiss mountain cows certainly do produce the finest milk!

Jason

Sun, 7 Sep 2008 13:18:51 GMT

Amazing!

fx

Sun, 9 Mar 2008 04:23:13 GMT

Thuan thanks for visiting, I will be back with better pictures of some scenic Swiss pastures later this year.

thuan

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 18:16:45 GMT

The pastural scenery there is so damn beautiful no wonder the cows are happy!

fx

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:03:39 GMT

Raymond, thanks for your kinds words! I am glad my article could bring back some of your beloved memories of my country. Maybe you"ll come back one day?

Raymond

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:20:31 GMT

Thanks so much for a lovely article. I recently came back to the states after living in Geneva for six years. Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Your story made me miss my adopted country very much. I have taken many walks like the one you have so eloquently described here through the Jura and the alps. My wife just came back from Verbier after a week of skiing with the kids. The one request I had was to bring home some of the cheeses I had fallen in love with while we lived there. Last night I made a beautiful fondue and today for lunch I will make the children your croute au fromage. Thanks for bringing me back!

fx

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:57:25 GMT

Jill, I am very happy to see my article helped you to turn a forgotten Swiss culinary souvenir into a dish you could eat. Thanks for the praise on my English, alas it is not all that good but God know I try hard!

Jill

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:00:36 GMT

My freezer broke down, and right at the back of the top drawer I found a large, soggy bag of "m�lange fondue" that my partner brought back from the Migros in Lausanne last time he visited (which might have been a year ago...). So I thought the perfect way to use this past-its-best cheese would be in a cro�te of the kind I used to love eating when I lived in Switzerland. A quick google brought up your site, which I have now bookmarked. Thank you for bringing it all back to me. And congratulations on the fluency and accuracy of your English too - I would never have guessed your mother tongue is French.

TJ

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:43:23 GMT

What store sells the alpine cheese?

Rachel

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 05:28:33 GMT

I went to the swiss alps on a field trip where we learnt about the cheese making. Thank you for reminding us all about it and the beautiful photos!

fx

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:54:42 GMT

Ariun thanks for your visit! I am certain that cheese from Mongolia must have the same wild herbs taste as our Swiss Alpine cheese. How long to the mature cheeses in Mongolia?

Ariun

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 01:53:14 GMT

A wonderful article! You really must come and try the milk and cheese here in Mongolia. The cows wander about eating herbs and grasses too. Mongolian yogurt and milk taste better than any I"ve ever had, though I admit I"ve never tried Swiss alpage ones. I wonder how they"d compare...

Beatrice

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:14:51 GMT

FX, you are a bit naughty here... obviously many of your readers are not able to walk into the Alps and buy some Alpkaese. On the other hand, in the morning I"m going to hike up to the nearest Kaeserei in Engelberg and buy some! I always take a good supply of Kleingeld when I hike in case I find a wonderful alm with 2-year-old wheels...

waz wallaby

Sat, 4 Aug 2007 06:08:28 GMT

Writing and photos evoke a special place and mouth-watering dish... Thanks

Penny Lane

Fri, 3 Aug 2007 05:42:04 GMT

Reminds me of Appenzell - the cheese was delicious and it was so much fun to meet the cows in person!

Denis Johnston

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:50:48 GMT

I am jealous of your location.I am stuck in Hawaii without any Alps.I throughly enjoy your writings...

Hannah

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:49:07 GMT

What a beautiful post! Oh, for a taste of that cheese...

parshu.narayanan

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:17:50 GMT

I have been waiting for Francois, as a proud Swiss National, to take us back to the pages of "Heidi" and here"s the cheese that she and Peter may have eaten and children round the world wondered about ( I did at least, when I was 9). Really interesting.

Lyra

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:34:25 GMT

This was a wonderful article, reading and looking at the gorgeous pictures of the swiss countryside makes me want to go there. Unfortunately in the summertime it costs so much to fly to Switzerland and to travel there that I cannot afford it. But reading about it is the next best thing. As someone who grew up on an organic farm, I strongly agree with what you say about the quality of milk being dependent on what the cows eat. This can be said for all animal products, and also of course for vegetables and fruits-if you gas them and cover them with pesticides and wax they aren"t going to be very good. Thanks for letting us imagine ourselves in the alpine countryside!