Noord-Hollandse Gouda

Appearance & taste

The cheese is a flat cylinder, with a rounded side that merges smoothly into the top and bottom and a height of a quarter to a third of the diameter, or a block with straight or rounded sides. Ten to fourteen days after the first day of production it weighs 2.5 to 30 kg. The rind is evenly yellow, closed and smooth; it may only be treated with uncoloured or yellow-coloured agents. When cut, the cheese is evenly ivory-coloured to yellow, with holes that may be unevenly distributed.

The taste is aromatic and melting, mild to sharp depending on age; according to the specification, it is less salty than other Gouda cheeses. Caraway may be added. After the first resistance the cheese is very supple, and because of this texture it was traditionally called “mollig zuivel”.

Production

The milk comes exclusively from dairy farms in North Holland. At least 50 % of the dry matter the cows eat in a year is roughage such as grass and silage from the area; concentrated feed is hardly used there. The milk is cooled on the farm to at most 6 °C and taken to the cheese dairy within 96 hours.

There, within 12 hours, it is briefly heated, standardised for fat content and pasteurised at at least 72 °C for at least 15 seconds. At 31 to 34 °C it is curdled with calf rennet or microbial rennet; rennet obtained through genetic engineering is prohibited. Acidification uses a mixed culture of starter bacteria. The curd is separated from the whey and washed, so that a mild rather than sour taste develops, then pressed in moulds and placed in brine until the salt content in the dry matter is below 3.3 % on average (at most 3.6 %). Before pressing, each wheel receives a casein mark with the name and a combination of letters and numbers that is only issued once. The cheese ripens naturally at at least 14 °C. Ripening, cutting and packing are also permitted outside North Holland, provided the origin remains traceable through the control number.

Origin & history

The area is the Dutch province of North Holland. The specification attributes the taste, rind and texture to the interplay between the milk from this grazing region and the recipe. As has traditionally been the case, milk production, processing and the basic making of the cheese take place in the area.