Wrångebäcksost

Appearance & taste

Wrångebäcksost is cylindrical, has a diameter of 30 to 45 cm, is 10 to 18 cm high and weighs 8 to 13 kg. The rind is formed by smear bacteria; it is orange to rust-red with dark brown tones, and its colour changes with age. The cut surface is yellowish, from a light yellowish beige to light yellow with orange streaks depending on the season and ripeness. It is compact and occasionally has holes; the texture is firm and creamy with crystals. The cheese contains 55 to 60 % fat in dry matter.

The smell is sour with barnyard and milky notes. The specification describes the taste as full-bodied and complex with a long aftertaste, hints of umami and barnyard, pronounced saltiness and some sweetness; in the mouth it melts.

Production

From mid-April to mid-October the cows live outdoors and eat mainly grass and herbs from the pastures in Guldkroken. If too little grass grows, they receive a mixture of silage, straw, cereals, field beans, rapeseed cake, minerals, salt and lime. At least 85 % each of the concentrates and of the roughage comes from the area; feed from outside is allowed only in extreme weather.

Fresh, unpasteurised organic whole milk from the area is processed, mainly from cows of the SLB and Brown Swiss breeds and their crosses. The cows are milked twice a day, and the milk may be at most 24 hours old. Only bovine rennet and mesophilic starter cultures are added; apart from salt, the cheese contains no additives. The cheese is pressed under whey.

Ripening takes place at 90 to 94 % humidity, for the first three months at 14 to 15 °C on shelves of fine-grained softwood. In the first three weeks the wheels are turned daily and washed with a 5 % salt solution, in the following two months three times a week; after that they continue to ripen at 10 to 11 °C and are turned and washed once a week. Because younger wheels are washed with the salt solution previously used for older ones, the smear bacteria, including Brevibacterium linens, pass from wheel to wheel. They shape smell and taste. During the ripening of at least nine months, the cheese loses about 12 to 14 % of its weight. All steps from pasture and milking to curdling the milk take place in the area.

Origin & history

Guldkroken is an elongated plain between Lake Vättern to the east and the Hökensås massif to the west, which protects it from westerly winds; the lake moderates the temperatures. The area comprises Grevbäck, Mofalla, the town and rural parish of Hjo, and Norra and Södra Fågelås. Here it is somewhat warmer and sunnier than in the surrounding area, and slightly less rain falls, around 500 mm a year. The soils range from clay and fine sand to black earth.

In the late Middle Ages cheese was made in Guldkroken for the monasteries of Alvastra and Vadstena; after the Reformation cheesemaking moved into the households. From the mid-19th century cheese was produced for sale, and at the beginning of the 20th century there were about fifteen dairies in Guldkroken. Many cheeses bore the name of their farm; Wrångebäcksost originally comes from the Wrångebäck estate dairy. In the 1960s production was stopped, and in 2008 it was resumed under the cheesemaker who had already run it back then. In this way the knowledge passed down since 1889 was handed on to a new generation; according to the specification, the cheese is still made by hand to the original recipe.