Havarti

Appearance & taste

Havarti is round or rectangular and can be made with or without a smear-ripened rind; the surface may carry a protective coating. Inside it is whitish or ivory to pure yellowish. The paste is soft but still sliceable and has bite, “al dente”, as the specification puts it. Its hallmark is the many irregularly shaped holes the size of rice grains, usually 1 to 2 mm wide and up to 10 mm long, evenly distributed through the cheese. Cheese with 60 % fat in dry matter has smaller holes throughout.

Havarti smells and tastes mild, slightly sour and aromatic, with a certain fullness; with age the smell and taste become stronger. Additions that significantly shape the flavour are permitted: spices and herbs or mixtures of them, wild garlic, garlic and jalapeños. Such an addition appears separately from the name, but in the same field of vision on the label. Havarti with at least 60 % fat in dry matter may also be called “Flødehavarti” (cream Havarti).

Production

Havarti is a scooped cheese, in Danish “fisket ost”. The term refers to how the curd is filled into the moulds and then fuses together. Cheese with a rind is first smeared for one to two weeks at 14 to 21 °C and then ripens for one to three weeks at 8 to 16 °C. Cheese without a rind ripens for three weeks at 2 to 21 °C. The maximum permitted water content depends on the fat content. All production steps take place in Denmark.

Origin & history

According to the specification, the word “Havarti” goes back to the Viking Age: it derives from “avarti”, a lushly overgrown, flowering riverbank. The name was coined by Hanne Nielsen, who made cheese at the end of the 19th century on the Havartigården estate in Holte near Copenhagen. From 1866 to 1890 she made its cheese known throughout Denmark and eventually became a purveyor to the royal court.

This kind of scooped cheese was first made in Denmark in 1921. At that time the Swiss G. Morgenthaler taught two dairy workers at the Ruds Vedby and Hallebygaard dairies on Zealand an entirely new method; from there production spread to numerous dairies throughout the country. Since the end of the 19th century the Ladelund and Dalum dairy schools have trained dairy workers, and according to the specification Havarti has always served there as the basis of training in making scooped cheese. Since 1921 Denmark has also had a university degree in dairy science and technology.