The world’s hardest cheese can be chewed for hours
It’s frustrating when you buy a block of cheese at the supermarket and it grows mold before you can enjoy the whole thing. But that’s rarely an issue with chhurpi, the world’s hardest cheese that can last for up to 20 years. Chhurpi originated in the Eastern Himalayas region of Nepal and China, and it comes in both a softer variety produced from cow’s milk and a hard variety made from yak’s milk. Soft chhurpi lasts for only a week or two and is often pickled or enjoyed in curries. But the version made from yak’s milk is a special culinary treat you won’t find anywhere else in the world.
Hard chhurpi is produced by curing fresh cheese curds at room temperature for several days. The curds are then sliced into blocks and left to dry either outside or in a low-heat oven, which gives it a smoky flavor and a dense consistency. While chhurpi is best enjoyed within six months, it’s said to last for up to two decades if properly stored in yak skin. Part of chhurpi’s everlasting freshness is due to its extreme lack of moisture. While this helps preserve the cheese, the low moisture content also makes it quite difficult to chew. The most effective way to eat it is to hold it in one’s mouth until it becomes moist and softens slightly, then begin chewing it like a gum. Consuming chhurpi in this way can make one block of the stuff last for up to two hours. That’s what makes chhurpi so popular in this isolated region of the world, as people can rely on it for continual sustenance during long journeys through mountainous terrain.
Albertville, France, is a small commune that’s most famous for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics. It’s also known for being the site of an untraditional power station that uses cheese to produce electricity. This unusual process relies on whey, a yellowish liquid byproduct that comes from the Beaufort cheesemaking process. Experts realized they could ferment the whey to create methane gas, which could then be used to heat water and produce electricity. In October 2015, a new cheese-based power plant opened with the ability to produce 2.8 million kilowatt-hours each year — enough to power a community of 1,500 people. It is the largest power plant of its kind, though it’s actually not the first. That distinction goes to a small prototype plant that was built in the mid-2000s near a French abbey that’s been producing cheese since the 12th century. Today, there are more than 20 of these small cheese-fueled power plants located throughout Europe and Canada.
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