The appenzeller is a Swiss cheese, a specialty of the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden. One finds its trace in a document of 1282. The monks of the cloister of St. Gall already appreciated at that time that cheese that they received from the Appenzells in payment of the tithe.
It is produced by about 80 village cheese factories in the canton of Appenzell and partly in the cantons of St. Gallen and Thurgau. The cheese is refined for at least three months. It takes its taste after numerous brushings, two to three times a week, with an herbal brine, called sulz, and whose recipe is kept secret (salt, yeast, white wine, pepper and a mixture of about twenty to forty plants). Only two people per generation know the recipe and can access the bank vault where it is kept. Appenzeller wheels weigh between 6 and 8 kilograms and have a diameter of 30 to 33 cm for about 80 l of milk.