Scientists have finally figured where Swiss cheese holes come from, and why they're disappearing
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The mystery of what makes the iconic holes in Swiss cheese --and why they're disappearing-- has finally been solved.
A Swiss agricultural institute discovered that tiny specks of hay are responsible for the famous holes in cheeses like Emmental or Appenzell.
In a report released Thursday, Agroscope and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology said in a statement that these "microscopically small hay particles" help create the holes in the traditional Swiss cheese varieties.
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And the reason why we've see less of these holes over the last 15 years is because of the transition from age-old milking methods in barns to fully-automated, industrial milking systems, which is cleaner.
Agroscope spokesman Regis Nyffeler told The Telegraph said that today's modern milking machines send the milk straight to a filter, unlike the before traditional methods that collected milk in a bucket.
In a series of tests, scientists added different amounts of hay dust to the milk and discovered it allowed them to regulate the number of holes.
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Agroscope said that the fascination with the formations in the cheese stretches back to 1917 when a detailed review of Emmental was published by American William Clark. He contended they were produced because of carbon dioxide from bacteria.
The Associate Press contributed to this report.