by Kerry Galan (108436221)
Seneca College
COM101NCW: Communicating Across Contexts
Professor Victoria Yeoman
November 20, 2022
I love cheese. Immensely. I happily eat it by itself. I would happily eat nothing but cheese if that was possible. You could even apply this meme to me:
Figure 1
Use cheese to catch white people
In my fridge, I have: two boxes of Kiri, which is a cream cheese packaged in small squares for snacking; Coastal cheese, a 15-month aged cheddar; several different types of havarti. I do not, however, have any gouda at the moment, which is silly, since gouda might be my favourite type of cheese and the one that I am writing about today. Funny enough, as it turns out, I previously knew very little about gouda.
Note. Adapted from "To Catch A White Person" [Image], Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/9bvn9w/to_catch_a_white_person/.
Gouda, traditionally pronounced "HOW-da" with a rasping quality to the first syllable (Food Insider, 2019), originated in the Netherlands' region of Holland. Depending on how long a certain variety is aged, it may possess a light and sweet flavour, or a heavier and nuttier one.
Figure 2
Two varieties of gouda
Note. Adapted from "Gouda Cheese" [Photograph], Castello. https://www.castellocheese.com/en-ca/cheese-types/semi-hard-cheese/gouda-cheese/. Copyright 2022 by Castello.
Gouda's origin as a cheese appears partially coincidental, due to the country's once predominantly boggy nature. Land reclamation efforts during the eleventh century initially led to land suitable for the farming of cereal crops. However, by the fourteenth century, "several centuries of draining the bogs [had] caused the land to contract, sinking several metres below sea level. At almost the same time, the sea level rose slightly, raising the water table, and making the newly reclaimed land very wet" (Cheese History, 2022, 8:09). Although the system of dikes and windmills built to once again drain the land was successful, it remained too wet for cereal crops, but perfect for cattle grazing, leading many farmers to instead raise dairy cows. By the middle of the 16th century, many Dutch cattle ranchers were becoming knowledgeable breeders, raising cows which produced more milk when compared to those of the nearby countries (Cheese History, 2022).
What does one do with a surplus of milk? Make cheese, of course! And to the Gouda Kassmarkt, or Gouda Cheese Market which dates from 1395 (Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, n.d.), cheese producers and merchants travelled to sell and trade cheese.
Gouda cheese takes its name from the South Holland city of Gouda; however, gouda cheese was never produced there, but sold. And sold there exclusively! In the Middle Ages, the city of Gouda gained the sole market right on cheese, restricting where cheese producers could sell and trade their products to the city alone (Coggins, 2017). Eventually, the cheese sold in Gouda became so linked to the city that it adopted its name (Food Insider, 2019).
Today, the Gouda Kassmarkt is held every Thursday from April to August and is one of Gouda's major attractions (Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, n.d.).
Figure 3
A summer's day at Gouda Cheese Market
Note. From Gouda cheese market [Photograph], by the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, n.d. https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/destinations/more-destinations/gouda/gouda-cheese-market.htm. Copyright by Holland.com.
Historically, gouda was made exclusively with unpasteurized, or raw, milk, and matured for varying lengths of time of roughly 6 to 60 weeks (McSweeney et al., 2017). Although the majority of gouda produced today in the Netherlands is made using pasteurized milk, 280 farms continue to make boerenkaas, or farmer's cheese, using unpasteurized milk (Food Insider, 2019). Bouren goudse oplegkaas, or aged artisanal gouda, is a very special type of farmhouse gouda which "must weigh at least 20 kilograms and can only be made in the summer with cattle grazing in the Green Heart region" (Food Insider, 2019, 2:17) of Holland.
Put simply, the steps in making bouren goudse oplegkaas include:
adding rennet to the milk
letting the milk rest for 30 minutes to thicken
cutting the cheese
removing the whey, which rises above the curds once the cheese is cut
stirring the cheese curds and raising its temperature to 37 degrees Celsius (cows' internal temperature)
washing the curds, to make the cheese sweeter and remove some amount of lactose
wrapping blocks of curds in linen and inserting them into wooden moulds
pressing the moulds under weights for a total of 4 hours
bathing the now-shaped wheels of cheese in brines, or salt baths, for 5 days
drying the cheese for 24 hours
coating the cheese in a protective layer
aging the cheese for at least 2 years (Food Insider, 2019)
Figure 4
Step 4: Cutting the cheese
Note. From How Gouda is Made at a 100-Year Old Family Farm [Image from Video], by Food Insider. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpROVueIcE. Copyright 2019 by Food Insider.
Figure 5
Step 8: Pressing the moulds
Note. From How Gouda is Made at a 100-Year Old Family Farm [Image from Video], by Food Insider. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpROVueIcE. Copyright 2019 by Food Insider.
Figure 6
Step 9: bathing the cheese
Note. From How Gouda is Made at a 100-Year Old Family Farm [Image from Video], by Food Insider. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpROVueIcE. Copyright 2019 by Food Insider.
Gouda is so special that it is traditionally grouped into 7 different categories according to how long its varieties are aged. The young varieties are:
graskaas, made from the first milk cows produce when returned to pasture after winter
jonge kaas, aged 4 weeks
jong belegen, aged 8 to 10 weeks
belegen, aged 16 to 18 weeks
After 6 months of aging, a cheese is considered aged, including:
extra belegen, aged 7 to 8 months
oude kaas, aged 10 to 12 months
overjarig, aged 1 year or more (Beest, n.d.)
Personally, with an insatiable sweet tooth, I prefer younger gouda. I would love to try graskaas someday.
Prior to writing this, I knew very little about gouda. In fact, shamefully, I am not even sure if I knew that it originated in Holland or that it is perhaps the most popular cheese across the globe, comprising of at least 50% of all cheese consumption (Cheese.com, n.d.)! I hope you learned a curd or two about gouda, too!
References
Beest, V. t. (n.d.). [A personal blog discussing the types of gouda cheese.] Verita's Visit.
Castello. (n.d.). Gouda Cheese.
Cheese.com. (n.d.). Gouda. https://www.cheese.com/gouda/
Cheese History. (2022, August 25). Gouda cheese does not date to 1184! [Video]. Youtube.
Coggins, Tom. (2017, January 24). A Brief History of Gouda Cheese. Culture Trip.
Ephvmeral. (n.d.). To Catch A White Person. Reddit.
Food Insider. (2019, October 23). How Dutch Gouda is Made at a 100-Year Old Family Farm
[Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpROVueIcE
Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions. (n.d.). Gouda cheese market. Holland.com.
McSweeney, P. L. H., Fox, P. F., Cotter, P., & Everett, D. W (Eds.). (2017). Cheese: Chemistry,
Physics and Microbiology (4th ed.). Academic Press. http://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-417012-4.00034-X
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