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Comment by maremmano | Hacker News Reader

No you cannot say that my Comté affiné 36 mois is a slice of gruyere instead.

My guess is it's a labeling issue -- Comté is sometimes confusingly referred to as Gruyère de Comté, though it is obviously not a Swiss cheese.

To me it seems much more likely that it is just unable to distinguish these cheeses. Both cheeses look very similar both in the cheese itself and the rind. They are also packaged and served in similar ways.

To be fair, Comté and Gruyere are pretty much as similar as 2 different types of cheeses can get.

visually, maybe. in taste, not at all. Comte and Beaufort maybe, Comte and Gruyere? no way

> Comte and Beaufort maybe

This is heresy!

It's hard to taste a picture! I'm not saying they're exactly the same, but they're made in extremely similar ways.

I'm from a less cheese-y part of Europe, but isn't Comté often called Gruyère de Comté for a reason? Of course they'll taste very different when aged for very different amount of times, but I've found them to be decently similar when aged for similar amounts of time.

I’ve never seen Gruyère develop those strong flavours (18m+), then again to be fair in France Gruyère is rarely aged

Oh. No. Really not. Comté is way more flavorful and tangy, and develop quartz of salt than crisp when you eat it.

The crystals are not salt but amino acid, mainly tyrosine.

Also calcium lactate, which is a salt.

Ok. They are pretty salty and transparent.

I've never been so angry because of an HN comment, nom d'une pipe en bois. But cheers from Switzerland anyway, let's enjoy cheese while we still have a sense of taste.

Non mais vous avez mieux que le gruyère pour rentrer en compète avec le comté non?

The crystals are just from aging it for longer, aren't they? Of course a 36 month Comté vs. 4 month Gruye won't have that many similarities compared to a 12 month Comté vs. 12 month Gruyere.

Correct.Yeah they are.

You specify the range of age you want when you buy comté.

For Gruyère, I never saw that, but it might be because I grew up a few hours from where it’s made.

To clarify : real gruyère is a great cheese. But comte is one of my favorite.

Man I miss cheese.

No, really really no. Please try again ( and make sure you get proper cheese, not tasteless plastic which will lead you to believe they're the same)

People are saying no, but nobody is offering a more-similar pair of cheeses.

beauford is much more similar to compté

Gruyère and Emmental.

Not at all. Emmental has a mild, flat flavour profile where Gruyère has a full bodied rich taste, just like Comté does.

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