Cheese
history
It is hard to imagine Holland without its lush green pastures and gently grazing cows. They are as much part of the national identity as clogs, windmills and tulips. Not surprising, when you consider that the Dutch have been making cheese since 400 AD. The importance of cheese making increased as the process of cattle breeding improved. In the Middle Ages official dairy markets and weigh houses were introduced which controlled both the quality and the weight of the cheese. All the produced cheese came from farms in the provinces of Noord Holland, Zuid Holland, Friesland, and western Utrecht.
Although production has been taken over by factories, there are still over 600 farms today that produce cheese, known as "Boerenkaas" (farmers cheese), made from non-scalded milk. Nowadays, Holland is the largest exporter of cheese in the world. Its dairy industry as a whole has a turnover of around Euro 7 billion.
Dutch Cheese Varieties
Gouda
Gouda is a semi-hard cheese with a 48 % milk fat content and a mild to piquant taste. Ageing intensifies the flavor and hardness. Graskaas is made from the first milkings after the cows return to the grassy polders from a winter spent inside. The fresh spring-time grasses lend the 1 month old cheese a rich, creamy texture and naturally yellow color. When graskaas is only aged for up to 1 week it has a milky color and is called meikaas. Jonge kaas (aged for 4 weeks) and jong belegen kaas (2 months) are well-suited for sandwiches. Other Goudas are fantastic for cooking; try extra belegen (aged for 7-8 months) if you're looking to substitute Jack or Cheddar cheeses. The oldest varieties, such as oude kaas (aged for at least 10 months) and overjarig (1 to 2 years), are excellent for eating in crumbly shards with a nice, sharp mustard or slick of apple syrup.
About 50% of the cheese production in Holland is devoted to this iconic cheese, making it our most important and best-known cheese. Gouda usually comes in cheese wheels weighing 26.5 pounds (12 kilos) and Baby Goudas of half a pound to a pound (250 g to a kilo). Beemster, Reypenaer and Old Amsterdam are popular commercial brands. Foodies the world over have long embraced Reypenaer cheese, an artisanal Gouda and a two-time Supreme Champion winner (best European cheese out of all categories) at the Nantwich International Cheese Show, the world's largest.
Edam
Edam cheese is the second most important cheese in the Netherlands, making up 27% of our total cheese production. Edam is semi-hard, with a fat content of 40% and a very mellow, salty taste that appeals to all ages. Ageing intensifies the flavor and hardness. The cheese has a typical round shape and weighs 4 pounds (1.7 kilos). Baby Edammers weigh half a pound (1 kilo). Export versions often have a red paraffin coating. Westland exports good Edam cheese, but whatever brand you buy, make sure it is from Holland. Cheap imitations that taste nothing like the original abound, unfortunately.
Maasdammer
Maasdammer cheese represents 15% of Dutch cheese production. It has large holes, a domed shape and a sweet, nutty taste. The shape, typical taste and holes are created by special bacteria that release gases during the maturation process. Leerdammer and Maasdam are the best known brands of Maasdammer cheese.
Boerenkaas
Boerenkaas (literally, farmer cheese) is a raw milk cheese, i.e. unpasteurized. By law, at least half of the milk used in the production of boerenkaas should come from the farm's own cattle. The other half may be purchased from no more than two other dairy farms. This ensures an artisanal product.
Goat's cheese
Dutch goat's cheese is available as the familiar fresh, soft goat's cheese we all know and in the semi-hard Gouda style. The advantage of this goat's cheese is that it needs a shorter maturation process than cheese made from cow milk. Semi-hard goat's cheese is pale, with a slightly piquant taste, but a creamy melt-in-the-mouth texture. Look out for aged Bettine Grand Cru, which was chosen 2006 Best Cheese of the World during the annual Nantwich International Cheese Show in England.
Smoked cheese
Smoked cheese is melted and smoked, and then reconstituted into sausage-like shapes. It is usually sold in slices and has a distinctive brown rind and a smoky taste.
Frisian clove cheese
This cheese is made with low fat milk, cumin and cloves. The cheese is quite firm in texture and comes in a wheel with sharp edges. A long ripening process creates a hard, dry and somewhat tart cheese.
Leidse cheese
The original cumin cheese from Leiden is dry, piquant and somewhat tart. It has a fat percentage of 40%. Ageing intensifies the cumin flavor. Boeren Leidse (literally 'farmhouse Leiden cheese') has a fat percentage of 20% and a dark red rind with the Leiden city crest (keys) on it.
Dutch blue cheese
While blue cheese is not strictly traditional in the Netherlands, the Dutch do make some delicious Gouda cheeses with powerful blue veins rippling through them. The most commercially available brand, called Delfts Blauw (also called Bleu de Graven) tastes rich and sweet, and not as salty as roquefort. There is also an organic brand, Bastiaanse Blauw.
cheese markets
In the olden days, the farmer would take his cheese once a week to a nearby cheese market looking for a bidder. Today, the cheese markets in Gouda and Alkmaar (open during the summer months) still feature the old rituals and traditions of the cheese trading process.
The bidding process goes as follows: a buyer approaches a farmer and offers him a price. This price is immediately rejected and the buyer leaves, only to return shortly with a second bid. At this time, the farmer raises the price and the buyer walks away again. He returns a third time when a price is finally agreed upon and the cheese is officially weighed.
At the same time the buyer is also engaging in what is known as "cheese bashing". He bangs the palm of his hand against the cheese to determine whether the holes in the cheese are the right size. The banging continues until the price is agreed. Each slap of the hand means that either the buyer has increased his offer or the farmer has decreased the price.
Once this procedure has ended, the buyer samples the cheese to test for flavor and age.
This is done with a six-inch cheese borer that the buyer plunges into the cheese.
The cheese porters wear white uniforms and lacquered straw hats. They carry the cheese on barrows painted in the color of their section (80 cheeses per barrow, weighing approx. 353 pounds in total). The cheese is carried to the weigh house, where the Weighing Master calls out the correct weight and writes it down on a blackboard. The porters subsequently take the cheeses to the buyers' warehouses or to lorries waiting to transport the cheeses.
Alkmaar's cheese market
The Alkmaar cheese market is unique in the world. It attracts many visitors, as it is one of the best-known sights of The Netherlands. The market is held every Friday morning at 10 a.m. (from April to September) in front of the historical weigh house, in the pretty town center. The market derives much of its appeal from the performance of the cheese porters, who carrying eight 16-kilo cheeses on a kind of sledge.
It is thought that the city probably had scales for weighing cheese as early as 1365. Today's market is as true to tradition as possible, and cheese is still being traded here. The function of the weigh house has changed though: it now houses the local Tourist Information Office (VVV), a restaurant and the Dutch Cheese Museum. Demonstrations of old crafts are given around the market square.
Cheese museum Alkmaar
The cheese museum in Alkmaar is housed in the old weigh house on the main square. The cheese museum has displays on the history of cheese as well as on cheese-making equipment. Emphasis is placed on the tools used in the 18th and 19th centuries before the advent of dairy factories.
Gouda's cheese market
The name "Gouda" is associated throughout the world with Gouda cheese, an important
export product. For centuries, farmers from the surrounding towns have brought their
produce to the cheese market in Gouda.
The "Waag" (weigh house) in Gouda is one of many beautiful monuments in town and dates from 1668. During the summer, cheese is weighed here every Thursday morning in an attractive ceremony drawing many tourists. Anyone interested or hungry can also take the opportunity to taste some authentic Gouda cheese.
Cheese museum Gouda
The old weigh house of Gouda is also a cheese museum nowadays. The Dutch dairy-industry and the city of Gouda are placed in the framework of cultural history, economy, architecture, society, agriculture, trade and industry by means of visual displays and modern interactive media devices.