Hollandse geitenkaas

Appearance & taste

Hollandse geitenkaas is a flat cylinder or has the shape of a Kanter cheese, a loaf or a block, and weighs 1.5 to 20 kg. Naturally ripened cheese has a closed, smooth, dry and clean rind without mould; cheese ripened in foil has no firm rind. The paste is white in young and medium-aged cheese and becomes ivory-coloured in old cheese. Four weeks after production it is somewhat soft to supple and becomes firmer as it dries out. The cut surface is closed or shows unevenly distributed holes.

According to the specification, the taste is clean, smooth and mild, in young cheese also fresh and slightly sour, not soapy and not or hardly bitter; with ripening, taste and smell become more intense. In foil, the mild taste of the young cheese is retained for longer. Herbs, spices or vegetables such as nettle, fenugreek, thyme and tomatoes may be added if their flavour can be tasted. The cheese contains 50 to 60 % fat in dry matter and at most 4.1 % salt in dry matter. It is eaten from 28 days to over a year after production.

Every naturally ripened cheese bears a casein mark with the name “Hollandse geitenkaas”; cheese ripened in foil does not receive one.

Production

The milk comes from dairy goat farms in the Netherlands, from the White Dutch goat or its crosses with other dairy goat breeds; milk from other animals is not permitted. The goats eat grass and maize silage of Dutch origin, pelleted feed and straw; lactating goats are not given feed such as onions that can impair the smell and taste of the milk. The farms take part in a quality assurance programme for goat’s milk, and every delivery is sampled.

In the dairy the milk is pasteurised for at least 15 seconds at at least 71.8 °C. It is curdled at 28 to 32 °C with animal or microbial rennet and mesophilic lactic acid bacteria. After the whey is drawn off, the curd is pressed into moulds and placed in brine of 17 to 20 °Bé. Naturally ripened cheese ripens for at least 25 days at 10 to 14 °C, is turned regularly and kept free of mould with a food-grade coating; in the process a dry rind forms. Foil-ripened cheese ripens for at least 25 days at 4 to 7 °C in a cold room. Production and natural ripening take place in the Netherlands; foil ripening may also take place elsewhere.

Origin & history

The Netherlands has a temperate maritime climate, moderated by the North Sea and the IJsselmeer, and mainly clay, sandy and peat soils; in the wetlands grass grows for livestock farming. Between 1880 and 1920 Saanen goats were imported from Switzerland and crossed with native goats. Villages founded breeding associations, and a national organisation for goat breeding introduced the herd book of the Dutch dairy goat; the breeding aim was a hornless goat with a high milk yield.

According to the specification, Dutch cheese culture has developed since the Middle Ages, and the knowledge of making Gouda was transferred to goat’s cheese. In 1946 a livestock adviser described the recipe, at that time still for small-scale production on the farm, including the addition of herbs. Because milk quotas were expensive, dairy cow farmers switched to goats from the early 1980s. Production moved to specialised dairies, and the quantity of goat’s cheese produced rose from 3,700 tonnes in 2000 to 19,780 tonnes in 2012.