Tilsit cheese

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Tilsit cheese or Tilsiter cheese is a light yellow semi-soft cheese, created in the mid-19th century by Swiss settlers from the Emmental in East Prussia.

The same ingredients to make the cheese were not available as in their home country and the cheese became colonized by different molds, yeasts, and bacteria in the humid climate. The result was a cheese which was more intense and full flavored. The settlers named the cheese after Tilsit, the Prussian town they had settled in.

Now also produced in Denmark as Havarti, Tilsiter has a medium-firm texture with irregular holes or cracks. Commercially produced Tilsiter is made from pasteurized cow's milk, ranges from 30 to 60 percent milk fat and has a dark yellow rind. Often flavored with caraway seed and peppercorns, Tilsiter is a superb complement to hearty brown/rye breads and dark beers. It is a common table cheese, yet extremely versatile. Tilsit can be eaten cubed in salads, melted in sauces, on potatoes, flans, or burgers.

Since 1893, "Tilsiter Switzerland" is a made with the re-imported recipe there.