Nieheimer Käse

Appearance & taste

Nieheimer Käse is typically a small cylinder 4.0 to 4.5 cm in diameter, 2.0 to 2.5 cm high and weighing 32 to 37 g. The surface is smooth, without wrinkles, yellowish to grey-green. The cut surface is smooth, closed and evenly coloured and may be interspersed with caraway; particles of quark that have not fully ripened are undesirable. Depending on ripeness, the paste is firm enough to slice or hard enough to grate: it loses water as it ripens, having about 45 to 46 % dry matter when sliceable and about 60 % or more when gratable. The fat content is always below 1 %.

The taste is clean, sharp and piquant, and with caraway correspondingly caraway-spiced. The cheese may be topped with hop leaves; this is then usually mentioned in the name.

Production

The starting material is dry quark made from pure cow’s milk, made in-house or bought in, with at least 33 % dry matter, a pH of 3.9 to 4.3 and less than 1 % fat. Milk and quark do not have to come from the area. The quark is ground in a mincer, filled into crates and placed in a ripening room. Depending on temperature and humidity, it ripens for 3 to 5 days until it turns yellowish; those in charge judge the right moment by appearance and taste. Only the bacteria and yeasts of the quark are used for ripening, without additional ripening cultures; according to the specification, this is what distinguishes the cheese from other sour milk cheeses.

The mass is mixed with 2.5 to 3.5 % table salt and caraway where applicable until everything is evenly distributed, shaped into rolls 4.0 to 4.5 cm in diameter and cut into pieces 2.0 to 2.5 cm wide with a cutting harp. The little cheeses cool individually on cheese boards and are packed in air-permeable packaging so that they can breathe and dry out slowly, on request additionally in a protective layer of hops.

Origin & history

The cheese is made in the municipality of Nieheim. Sour milk cheeses have a long tradition in many parts of Germany; according to the specification, Nieheimer Käse developed as a local speciality in the Nieheim area from the beginning of the 19th century. It is based on farmhouse cheesemaking in and around Nieheim, whose recipes and experience were passed on within families. Characteristically, the quark is first ground and then ripens in tubs before it is shaped.

In 1857 the Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung für Westfalen-Lippe described cheesemaking on the Externbrock estate near Nieheim. H. von Klenze’s handbook of cheesemaking technology (1884) calls the cheese a product of the area around the town, an article from 1934 a local product whose existence goes back centuries, and a trade journal from 1965 describes production as concentrated in and around Nieheim. Cheese markets have been held regularly in Nieheim since the 1920s and 1930s.