40 Fun Facts About Gouda Cheese

Gouda cheese is not made in the Dutch city of Gouda, so how did the cheese get that name?

It was traded there: farmers from the surrounding countryside brought their cheeses to the city's market, where the council enforced strict quality controls.

Gouda, the Dutch cheese sold in big waxed wheels, is traditionally made from which animal's milk?

Cow's milk is the base of classic Gouda, though Dutch farmhouse makers also produce goat and sheep versions under the same protected farm label.

Which Dutch biscuit, like the famous cheese, was first made in the city of Gouda?

Stroopwafel bakers in Gouda are said to have begun by sweetening leftover crumbs with syrup, and by 1960 the city had 17 factories turning them out.

Gouda comes in flat wheels, but which other Dutch cheese is traditionally sold as a ball in red wax?

Edam hardens instead of spoiling as it ages, which made the little red spheres a favourite food for long sea voyages and remote colonies.

On Dutch farms, the craft of making Gouda was traditionally handed down between which relatives?

Mothers to daughters: cheesemaking was women's work on Dutch farms, and since 1988 a bronze statue of a farm woman clutching a Gouda has honoured them in the city.

At a Dutch market for Gouda, how do a farmer and a trader signal each price offer while haggling?

By clapping hands, in a ritual the Dutch call handjeklap, the two sides slap palms and shout prices until a final handshake seals the deal.

Unlike Champagne, why can cheese labelled simply 'Gouda' legally be produced anywhere in the world?

The name is not protected, so Gouda is a generic style; only longer labels such as Gouda Holland are reserved by EU law for cheese made in the Netherlands from Dutch milk.

Guild porters carrying Gouda at Dutch cheese markets were told apart by the colour of which item?

Their straw hats are coloured by company: at the best-known market, the four teams of porters wear red, blue, green or yellow.

In the Netherlands, cubes of Gouda are a classic bar snack served with which condiment for dipping?

Mustard made in the Dutch style is the standard dip, and the cubes belong to the bittergarnituur, the plate of small snacks that Dutch cafés serve with drinks.

Gouda makers swap some whey for water to rinse out which substance, leaving a sweeter cheese?

Lactose is washed out before bacteria can turn it into sour lactic acid, which is why removing a sugar leaves Gouda tasting sweeter.

After pressing, a wheel of Gouda is soaked in which liquid to flavour the cheese and its rind?

Brine is a strong salt bath: the salt it adds gives the cheese and its rind their distinctive taste, firms up the rind and helps the wheel keep while it matures.

Once a price was agreed at the old Gouda market, porters carried the cheese to which building?

The weigh house on Gouda's market square put every sale on official scales so the city could levy its taxes, and the 17th-century building is now a national monument.

Which spice's seeds flavour Leyden, a skimmed-milk Dutch cheese shaped much like Gouda?

Cumin gives Leyden its warm bite, and the protected farmhouse version is sold 'with keys', a nod to the keys on the coat of arms of the city of Leiden.

Which natural dye, brought to the Netherlands from South America, gives Gouda its yellow colour?

Annatto comes from the seeds of the achiote tree; in the 17th century Dutch traders bought it along the coasts of Guyana and Suriname and sold it at home as 'paint'.

Well-aged Gouda develops a slight crunch from crystals and a sweetness likened to which confection?

Caramel notes build up with prolonged ripening, and some farmhouse wheels kept past two years are even compared to butterscotch.

Boerenkaas, the protected farmhouse form of Gouda, is set apart by using milk in which state?

Unpasteurised milk, at least half of it from the farm's own animals, keeps its enzymes and bacteria active, giving a spicier, more complex cheese.

The cheese slicer used across the Netherlands to shave Gouda thinly was invented in which country?

Norway is where Thor Bjørklund based the slicer on a carpenter's plane in 1925, and mass production began in Lillehammer two years later.

Which Dutch cheese with big holes was created in the 1970s to rival Gouda and resemble Emmental?

Leerdammer was developed by a dairy owner and a cheese-shop keeper who met in 1970; the generic version of their sweet, nutty cheese is sold as Maasdam.

Vlaskaas, a sweet Gouda from Beemster, honours which fibre crop once vital to the Dutch economy?

Flax, the plant behind linen, gives Vlaskaas its name although none goes into the cheese, and the city of Gouda itself once had a considerable linen industry.

Graskaas, a creamy Gouda sold in early summer, uses the first milk after dairy herds do what?

Return to pasture is the trigger: after a winter indoors the animals' first grass-fed milk is especially rich, while cheese from the barn months is known as hay cheese.

Parrano, a Dutch cheese that is technically a Gouda, is marketed in the style of which country?

Italy is the model: Parrano aims for the flavour of aged Parmesan in a softer cheese, and it was named best Gouda at the 2006 World Championship Cheese Contest.

In keshi yena, a dish from Curaçao, a hollowed-out Gouda rind is stuffed with what before cooking?

Spiced meat, often chicken, fills the cheese shell; the dish is believed to have begun with enslaved cooks stuffing leftover rinds with table scraps.

At Dutch snack chains such as FEBO, a fried kaassoufflé of Gouda-style cheese is sold from what?

A vending machine known as an automatiek takes coins and releases the hot snack, one of the few vegetarian choices at a Dutch snack bar.

Rookkaas, a Dutch take on Gouda with a yellowish-brown skin, has been treated in which way?

Smoked cheese takes its brown skin from the curing itself, although cheaper versions simply use smoke flavouring and food colouring to copy the look.

The small holes, or eyes, inside a Gouda form when bacteria release bubbles of which gas?

Carbon dioxide is given off as lactic acid bacteria break down citrate from the milk; the far larger holes of Emmental come from a different bacterium at work.

On a Dutch Gouda label, the figure '48+' gives the minimum share of what in the dry matter?

Fat is measured against the dry matter alone, so a young 48+ Gouda is in fact less than a third fat once the water in the cheese is counted.

Which curdling agent, traditionally taken from calves' stomachs, is added to milk to start a Gouda?

Rennet carries an enzyme that makes the milk protein clump into curds in about half an hour, though many makers now use a microbial version instead.

A young Gouda is sealed in a yellow wax or plastic coating mainly to stop the cheese doing what?

Drying out is the danger during the months a Gouda spends on warehouse shelves, where the wheels are also turned regularly so moisture and salt spread evenly.

On a Dutch Gouda, words such as 'jong', 'belegen' and 'oud' tell a shopper what about the cheese?

How long it aged is the point: young Gouda gets about four weeks and the oldest grade more than a year, though the label terms are not legally fixed.

The city of Gouda is also known for making which items, lit there by the thousand each December?

Candles fill the windows of the Gothic town hall and the houses around the market at Gouda by Candlelight, when the street and shop lights are switched off.

Which Dutch city, Gouda's rival as a cheese-market draw, has a guild led by a 'Cheese Father'?

Alkmaar founded its cheese carriers' guild in 1593, and its members still address their white-suited leader as Dad.

In Dutch 'brown cafés', cubes of Gouda are the classic snack to nibble alongside which drink?

Beer is the everyday partner for young cubes, while a hard, years-old Gouda-style cheese such as Roomano is also matched with port or aged sherry.

In the Netherlands, older Gouda is sometimes eaten topped with which dark fruit spread?

Apple butter in the Netherlands is closer to a dense syrup, known as appelstroop, and is often eaten on bread with thinly sliced cheese.

At Dutch cheese markets, samplers in white coats check the inside of a Gouda wheel using which tool?

A scoop lets the sampler judge the feel, smell and taste of the cheese and check that its holes are spread evenly through the wheel.

Dutch porters moving Gouda in pairs walk in a synchronised shuffle, the 'dripple', for which reason?

To steady the load, more than 100 kilos of cheese on a wooden barrow slung between two men, the pair must fall into exactly the same rhythm.

Roomano, a Gouda-style cheese aged four years or more, comes from which northern Dutch province?

Friesland is home to Roomano, whose long ripening gives a salty-sweet flavour with hints of roasted hazelnut and toffee.

Which Wisconsin-born cheese is made, like Gouda, by rinsing the curds with water?

Colby was born in 1885 when a Wisconsin cheesemaker washed a batch of cheddar curd with cold water, giving a moister cheese named after the nearby city.

Which aged Gouda brand hit the news when fake wheels were seized and their sellers taken to court?

Old Amsterdam is made by the Westland family firm in the town of Huizen, not in the capital, and is ripened for about eight months.

An uitsmijter, the Dutch lunch of bread topped with ham and Gouda, comes with at least two of what?

Fried eggs crown the uitsmijter, whose name means a bouncer: cafés served the dish just before closing time, when guests were about to be thrown out.

The makers of Beemster, a Gouda-style cheese, were granted which honour by the Dutch queen in 2001?

A royal warrant, worded 'By Appointment to the Court of the Netherlands', was awarded in 2001 to the farmers' co-operative that makes the cheese.