I love aged Gouda too. Carmelly, complex and crunchy with the calcium (or tyrosine?) crystals. With a little undertone of funkiness. Very addictive. Yeah, the aged stuff is completely transformed from boring, bland young Gouda.
I first discovered it at the local Kroger surprisingly, when they were selling 1000 day old Gouda for awhile. I eventually found 5 year old Gouda from a seller on Amazon- it was very good, but I didn’t think noticeably better than the 1000 day- I think there are diminishing returns in aging longer than that 1000 day mark. But that might just be my unsophisticated palate. Sadly the local Kroger doesn’t carry the 1000 day any more but I found a local cheese shop that carries 2 kinds of aged Gouda.
Based on information in a thread many months ago about aged cheese, I decided to procure Swiss and Cheddar cheeses via the Internet. True, those types of cheeses are far from uncommon, but what was uncommon is the fact that they were aged somewhere between 16 and 20 years.
I’ve never had cheese that tasted to incredibly good. The kind of Swiss that you see hanging on a rack at Jewel’s pales in comparison to this cheese. It was worth every penny, and I plan on getting more.
I don’t know if this is what it is really called, but in Utah I tried what the locals called “sqeaky cheese” which was cheddar-like, but squeaked in your teeth with every bite almost as if you were eating rubber.
Gjetost/bronost is an odd one. I’ve actually made it at home a couple of times. It’s called a “cheese,” but I really think of it more as a caramelized milk product. All it is is basically boiled down whey and cream. I do love the stuff, though, and the Ski Queen brand is the only one I’ve ever seen of it.
I have some in my fridge right now. Let me taste. (It’s from several months ago.) Well, first of all, if when you think of stinky cheese as blue cheese, it’s a bit different than that. While blue cheese has a stink, this is a different kind of stink. A bit more in the sweaty sock, body odor realm. I know some blues go there, but this cheese is concentrated in that category.
Texture? Reasonably creamy. Not quite spreadable, but not too far from it. A bit firmer than camembert. Somewhere between that and muenster cheese. Actually, now that I think of it, not too much different than the texture of most blue cheeses. Slightly firmer, but in that general ballpark.
Taste? I mean, yeah, it brings the funk, but aside from that, there’s a good bit of tang to it. Now I’m tasting a little bit of ammonia to it, as well. Never noticed that before, but there’s definitely an ammonia tang to it (which I know from the Scandinavian salty licorice that I like.) Otherwise, the taste is mostly cheesy sweat. If you take your finger and rub it along the ridge of your nose and smell it, that’s pretty much the smell/flavor you get from it.
I have not, but after checking that link, it turns out it’s sold at a restaurant/deli I will be dining at tomorrow night. Though I notice it might not be available just yet this season. Thanks for the tip!
The elder swisses are wonderful! Especially when they’re old enough to have those holes in the cheese filled with that amber liquid, the taste of which is the epitome of swiss flavor and richness! I’m working on a 4 year old swiss sample at present. I wish I still had access to the 9 year old stuff I had earlier in the year.
I’ve tried Liederkranz too, a formerly extinct variety brought back from the dead thanks to [del]mosquitoes in amber[/del] re-use of the original bacterial strains.
Aficionados tell me it’s different from limburger, to me they were pretty damn similar. Pungent, and sadly it didn’t remind me of the epoisses mentioned above, as some claim it reminds them. I’ve not gone back for more. But I’d eat it again if served it.
Caciocavallo- it’s an Italian cheese vaguely similar to unsmoked provolone or low moisture mozzarella.
Makes for very good homemade pizza!
I’ve also had Dutch graaskaas, which is cheese made from the cows in the first milkings after they’re put into pastures after spending the winter indoors. Good, but mild.
The ‘squeak’ is the mark of freshness. It’s gone in a few days after they were made. Most local cheese factories near me have their specific ‘cheese curd day’ each week when you know they’re fresh out of the cheese curdler out back. However, warming in the microwave can restore the squeak, if not over-done.
actually great grandpa Cauffman used to eat limburger cheese along with his sunday beer (apparently despite prohibition there was a local law that said beer was ok between 3 and 5 on sundays and no more than 2 pints per person)
To keep it mild and non smelly he wrapped it in foil and kept it in the freezer and would sit on the porch drink his beer and eat his cheese til he passed the 50s …….
Ohhh, yes. Until a few years ago, it was very difficult to get cheese curds here in Chicago. But, now, you can get them at Whole Foods and Mariano’s. Not quite the same as fresh from the factory, but better than nothing.
I think it’s pretty normal cheese if you’re from the right part of the world, but I’m not from there… Not that long ago, I quite liked some Comté cheese.
Missed the edit window: I have to also add another voice to the recommendations of old Gouda - it’s very good, a lot of flavour, don’t be thrown off it by the relative blandness of young Gouda.
I don’t even think it’s a few days, do you? It’s like… one day. Maybe a day and a half. The good squeak disappears fast.
I occasionally get a pound or two of one or two day old curds when relatives from Wisconsin visit. But the best I’ve had in the past several years was from the Nasonville Dairy Retail store, between Wausau and Chippewa Falls on Hwy 29. We stumbled in there a few hours after the curds were made, bought a pound, and I don’t think it lasted an hour in the car. There’s really nothing like fresh curds.
Five-to-seven-year-old Gouda may be my favorite cheese. There’s just so much going on there–prune-raisin types of flavors, umami a la an older Parmesan, maybe port or something in that general flavorscape. Just fantastic stuff.
I had a little Idiazabal cheese yesterday and today, and in addition to its cool name, it was delicious!
However, my favorite “less common” cheese probably remains Double Gloucester:
I have heard of - and seen - Morbier (referenced in post #17 above) and the word from veteran employees at a first-rate deli was most unflattering. It was by far their least favorite cheese to deal with on account of its rank and unpleasant odor. I’ve never been brave enough to actually try any, though…
