Holsteiner Tilsiter

Appearance & taste

Holsteiner Tilsiter is made in the classic wheel shape and increasingly also in loaf or block form; in loaf form it weighs 3.5 to 5.0 kg. It has a thin, yellowish-brownish natural rind. The light yellow paste is firm enough to slice, supple and very elastic, and shows the irregular and slit-shaped holes usual for Tilsiter.

Depending on how long it has been stored, the flavour ranges from mild and slightly savoury to strong and sharp. According to the specification, it owes its sharp note to natural bacterial cultures that have developed in the ripening cellars over generations. The cheese comes in three fat levels: from 30 %, from 45 % and from 60 % fat in dry matter. It is usually not seasoned; if it is, then only with caraway.

Production

The cheese can be made from raw milk or from pasteurised milk; the milk does not have to come from Schleswig-Holstein. During ripening the rind is continuously treated with a mixture of red smear culture and whey, skimmed milk or brine. All steps from the receipt of the milk to the end of storage and ripening, which lasts at least five weeks, take place in Schleswig-Holstein.

Origin & history

The climate between the North Sea and the Baltic is strongly oceanic. According to the specification, location and soils have produced particular plant communities and thus particular feed qualities, which favoured milk production and cheesemaking. At the end of the 16th century, dairy farming beyond the estates’ own needs began in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein; Dutch refugees brought the knowledge for it into the country. At the end of the 19th century the cooperative dairies emerged; in 1888 alone, 251 new ones were founded.

According to the specification, old documents already record a comparable cheese at the Behl estate in Holstein Switzerland in the 16th century. The Tilsiter recipe was described in 1840 by a Mrs Westpfahl, who lived on an estate near Tilsit in East Prussia; that is where the name comes from. At the end of the 19th century the recipe and name reached Schleswig-Holstein, where the cheese quickly became the most popular; since then it has been called Holsteiner Tilsiter. According to a cited source, Tilsiter making hardly began there before 1900 and was supported by the state from 1929. Since about 1920 the production area has covered today’s state of Schleswig-Holstein. Today the dairy technicians are trained at the Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Milchwirtschaft in Bad Malente.