Gruyere does not see eye to eye with the big-holed Swiss Saanen cartwheel or American imitation.  It has tiny holes, and many of them; let us say it is freckled with pinholes, rather than pock-marked.  This variety is technically called a niszler, while one without any holes at all is “blind.”  Eyes or holes are also called vesicles.

Gruyere Trauben (Grape Gruyere) is aged in Neuchatel wine in Switzerland, although most Gruyere has been made in France since its introduction there in 1722.  The most famous is made in the Jura, and another is called Comte from its origin in Franche-Comte.

A blind Emmentaler was made in Switzerland for export to Italy where it was hardened in caves to become a grating cheese called Raper, and now it is largely imitated there.  Emmentaler, in fact, because of its piquant pecan-nut flavor and inimitable quality, is simulated everywhere, even in Switzerland.

Besides phonies from Argentina and countries as far off as Finland, we get a flood of imported and domestic Swisses of all sad sorts, with all possible faults—­from too many holes, that make a flabby, wobbly cheese, to too few—­cracked, dried-up, collapsed or utterly ruined by molding inside.  So it will pay you to buy only the kind already marked genuine in Switzerland.  For there cheese such as Saanen takes six years to ripen, improves with age, and keeps forever.

Cartwheels well over a hundred years old are still kept in cheese cellars (as common in Switzerland as wine cellars are in France), and it is said that the rank of a family is determined by the age and quality of the cheese in its larder.

Feta and Casere

The Greeks have a name for it—­Feta.  Their neighbors call it Greek cheese.  Feta is to cheese what Hymettus is to honey.  The two together make ambrosial manna.  Feta is soft and as blinding white as a plate of fresh Ricotta smothered with sour cream.  The whiteness is preserved by shipping the cheese all the way from Greece in kegs sloshing full of milk, the milk being renewed from time to time.  Having been cured in brine, this great sheep-milk curd is slightly salty and somewhat sharp, but superbly spicy.

When first we tasted it fresh from the keg with salty milk dripping through our fingers, we gave it full marks.  This was at the Staikos Brothers Greek-import store on West 23rd Street in Manhattan.  We then compared Feta with thin wisps of its grown-up brother, Casere.  This gray and greasy, hard and brittle palate-tickler of sheep’s milk made us bleat for more Feta.

Gorgonzola

Gorgonzola, least pretentious of the Blues triumvirate (including Roquefort and Stilton) is nonetheless by common consent monarch of all other Blues from Argentina to Denmark.  In England, indeed, many epicures consider Gorgonzola greater than Stilton, which is the highest praise any cheese can get there.  Like all great cheeses it has been widely imitated, but never equaled.  Imported Gorgonzola, when fruity ripe, is still firm but creamy and golden inside with rich green veins running through.  Very pungent and highly flavored, it is eaten sliced or crumbled to flavor salad dressings, like Roquefort.