Emmental is the original Swiss cheese — a large, pale-yellow, hard cow's-milk cheese from the valley of the river Emme in the Swiss canton of Bern, made in enormous wheels and famous for the big round holes, called eyes, that riddle its pale paste. Its flavour is mild, mellow and nutty, faintly sweet and fruity, far gentler than the long-aged Alpine cheeses it is often confused with. It melts cleanly and stringily, which is why it is a backbone of fondue, of gratins and of the generic sliced sandwich cheese sold around the world simply as Swiss.