Boerenkaas (Goudse Kaas) Dutch

Hard·1 hour

Traditional Dutch farmhouse Gouda, pressed from raw cow's milk on the farm and ripened into a firm wheel that turns nutty, buttery, and crystalline with age.

Milk

Salt

Water

Boerenkaas is farmhouse cheese made on Dutch farms from the producer's own raw milk, with heat treatment kept below 40C, an EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed protected for its traditional on-farm raw-milk method rather than a single region; Goudse, Edammer and Leidse are its styles. Raw milk and the farm's own hand are what set it apart from factory cheese (unlike Gouda Holland PGI, which may use pasteurized milk).

Young, it is supple and mild with a clean milky sweetness; aged, it deepens to butterscotch and toasted nuts, dry and crumbly with tiny crunchy crystals. A staple on the Dutch breakfast and lunch table.

Washing the curds removes lactose so less acid develops, giving Gouda its sweet, supple character; raw milk's native enzymes and bacteria then drive the complex flavors that develop over long aging.

Variations

Goudse, Edammer and Leidse boerenkaas, jong (young), belegen (matured), oude (aged), with cumin or cloves (Leidse/komijnekaas)

On the Palate

Where Boerenkaas (Goudse Kaas) Dutch sits in the Dutch flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 12

10 LMilk

for brineSalt

as neededWater

How it's made

8 steps · 1 hour

1
30 min
Gently warm raw cow's milk and stir in a mesophilic starter culture to begin acidifying.
2
45 min
Add rennet and let the milk set undisturbed into a firm curd.
Watch out
Let it set undisturbed until a fingertip pressed on top parts with a clean edge and clear whey wells up — a 'clean break' means it's ready to cut.
3
30 min
Cut the curd into small grains and let them settle and firm up.
4
20 min
Drain off part of the whey and replace it with warm water to wash the curds and lower acidity.
Watch out
Swapping whey for warm water is the Gouda move — it rinses out lactose so the cheese stays sweet and supple, not sharp; keep the water warm so the curds don't seize.
5
25 min
Stir and reheat the curds, then pack them into a cheese mould.
6
480 min
Press the cheese under increasing weight to expel whey and form a closed rind.
Watch out
Press hard enough that the rind closes into a smooth, sealed skin with no open seams — gaps let mould creep in during the long aging.
7
1440 min
Brine the pressed wheel in salt water for one to several days.
Watch out
The wheel should firm up in the brine and take on a faint salt-set surface — this seasons it through and starts the rind.
8
10080 min
Dry, then ripen on shelves for at least four weeks to over a year, turning regularly.