On Food and Cooking

cheese. Thanks to newly sensitive analytical
instruments, dairy chemists have recently
verified what connoisseurs have known for
centuries: an animal’s diet influences its milk
and the cheese made from it. French studies of
alpine Gruyère found a larger number of
flavor compounds in cheeses made during
summer pasturage compared to winter stable
feeding, and more herbaceous and floral
terpenes and other aromatics (p. 273) in
mountain cheeses than cheeses from the high
plateaus, which in turn have more than
cheeses from the plains (alpine meadows have
more diverse vegetation than the grassy
lowlands).
Like fruits, cheeses made from pasturefed
animals are seasonal. The season depends on
the local climate — the summer is green in
the Alps, the winter in California — and how
long it takes a particular cheese to mature.
Cheeses made from pasturage are generally
recognizable by their deeper yellow color, due