Scientists in Switzerland spent the last six months playing music at maturing cheese to see whether certain genres would change enhance the flavour.
If this sounds insane, we’re with you, but apparently it actually worked. Not only that, the Hip Hop enhanced cheese apparently reigns supreme.
The experiment was conducted by a Swiss Veteranarian who moonlights as an cheesemaker in collaboration with Bern University of Arts. The researchers took nine 10kg wheels of Emmental cheese, placed them in individual crates and then stored them in a cellar.
Over six months each cheese was exposed to a mini-transducer which looped one song at in twenty-four-hours a day. The aim was for the soundwaves to directly impact the wheels.
Five cheeses got their own song from a particular genre, with three others being exposed to a low, medium and high frequency tones. One control cheese was left to mature in lonely silence.
This is what the five lucky cheeses got to listen to:
- Classical – The Magic Flute by Mozart
- Rock – Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
- Ambient – Monolith by Yello
- Techno – UV by Vril
- Hip Hop – Jazz (We’ve Got) by A Tribe Called Quest
After the aging process was completed the ZHAW Food Perception Research Group was brought in to test the cheese. It found that “the cheeses exposed to music had a generally mild flavour compared to the control test sample. Their report also confirms that the cheese exposed to hip hop music displayed a discernibly stronger smell and stronger, fruitier taste than the other test samples.”
Other food experts were also brought in for multiple blind taste tests and came to similar conclusions to the ZHAW. However, it wasn’t 100% conclusive, with several tasters preferring some of the other cheeses over the hip hop.
Biomedical testing will now be conducted to further test the impact of music on cheese maturation. If more taste testers are needed I can make myself available.