# A comment and a question on Swiss cheese **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 23, 2001, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-comment-and-a-question-on-swiss-cheese/59223 "2001-03-23T21:36:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2001, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-comment-and-a-question-on-swiss-cheese/59223/1 "2001-03-23T21:36:26Z")
[Unca Cece on Swiss cheese](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010323.html) First off, Cecil says about the holes in Swiss cheese that “It’s a beautiful, natural process, with the advantage that it enables cheese makers to charge good money for a product that by law is partly air.” He also suggests at the end that smaller holes mean “you’ll be getting more cheese and less thin air.” Big deal. At every grocery store I’ve ever been to, cheese is sold by weight, not volume. So it’s not like the evil Swiss cheese industry is ripping us off just by selling us a product with holes in it. Second, the column says that the cheese guys are trying to get the government to revise the regulations for Grade A Swiss to allow for much smaller holes that don’t foul up slicing machinery. I don’t really care about the size of the holes in my cheese, but doesn’t the size of the holes indicate how much lactic acid the _P. shermanii_ microbes have digested. And wouldn’t that affect the taste of the cheese? In other words, does smaller holes mean yuckier cheese? If so, I think the fine folks at Kraft foods better just get to work on some better slicers. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-comment-and-a-question-on-swiss-cheese/59223/2 "2001-03-23T22:16:33Z")
I DID wonder how he was going to sell his “all holes” cheese, since, like clouds, it would be weightless … ---
**Author:** ![cameron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@cameron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cameron)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-comment-and-a-question-on-swiss-cheese/59223/3 "2001-03-24T04:05:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yabob \* > \*\*I DID wonder how he was going to sell his “all holes” cheese, since, like clouds, it would be weightless … > \*\* He’d have to sell it by the gram, which we all know is a measure of mass. I just tied together three threads!!! ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-comment-and-a-question-on-swiss-cheese/59223/4 "2001-03-24T14:05:51Z")
> [@](#): > > So the industry is now asking that the regulations for Grade A Swiss be revised to make the average hole only three-eighths of an inch in diameter–one-quarter the area it is today. Apparently it’s a done deal. [http://www.news-journalonline.com/2001/Jan/24/POL14.htm](http://www.news-journalonline.com/2001/Jan/24/POL14.htm) > [@](#): > > Wednesday, January 24, 2001 > > Clinton’s legacy: USDA OKs smaller cheese holes for Swiss > News-Journal wire services > > WASHINGTON - There soon will be more cheese and less air in a ham and Swiss sandwich. > > The government announced Tuesday that Grade A Swiss cheese would be allowed to have smaller holes to keep it from getting tangled in high-speed slicing machines. > > USDA officials decided the cheese standard was technically a notice and not a new regulation and so allowed its publication in Tuesday’s Federal Register as scheduled, said Becky Unkenholz, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Marketing Service. Or, then again, maybe not… > [@](#): > > The change was thrown in doubt Saturday when the White House imposed a moratorium on rules issued in the waning days of the Clinton administration. Yet more fallout from the last days of the “Bill ‘n’ Hillary Show”. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-comment-and-a-question-on-swiss-cheese/59223/5 "2001-03-29T11:56:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by minty green \* > \*\*First off, Cecil says about the holes in Swiss cheese that “It’s a beautiful, natural process, with the advantage that it enables cheese makers to charge good money for a product that by law is partly air.” He also suggests at the end that smaller holes mean “you’ll be getting more cheese and less thin air.” > > Big deal. At every grocery store I’ve ever been to, cheese is sold by weight, not volume.\*\* When I was a wee flod, the family used to take a trip to visit my father’s family in Wisconsin every summer. I distinctly remember that the grocery store delis would be happy to cut “10 slices” of Swiss cheese (or bologna or what have you). I don’t remember if they _charged_ by the slice or by the pound when you asked for it like that. Maybe in Cece’s neighborhood they charge by the slice. Also, if you ask for a sandwich with cheese at your local deli or sandwich/sub/steak shop, you’ll get it by the slice. So if you ask for Swiss, you’ll get less cheese than if you asked for Colby, which has no holes. Smaller holes in the Swiss would decrease the inequity here. As would using holeless “processed” Swiss, which is what those Kraft swisslike singles are. Whether the extra cheese would be worth the change in taste is left as a decision for the reader. (Regional Terminology Alert: flodnak’s place of birth is near Philadelphia, so the “local steak shop” mentioned above would be a place to get a cheesesteak, not a ribeye.)