Netherlands

Netherlands
Photo by Jonas Schöne / Unsplash

As we have Dutch family, I expected this one to be easy. However after many hours of debate on the correct ingredients for stamppot (mostly carrots and potatoes, I gather, possibly also kale. Or maybe cabbage), plus whether or not its possible to serve yellow pea soup with out a smoked sausage we came back to the unfailing delight of Dutch cheese. Now I was brought up on Edam and perhaps Gouda (don't, for heavens sake try to pronounce the latter unless you're absolutely sure you know how by the way), but having spent a lot of time in NL, I can truthfully state I've never actually seen Edam anywhere to buy. It's like it was somehow dreamt up as a bland old cheese, primarily for export. And Gouda, well, its more like a classification than anything else. In other words, this is absolutely a recommendation to find really really good Dutch cheese, not whatever travesty your local supermarket may hold.

We have a very good cheese shop nearby, but the eye watering prices mean we generally buy small slivers for special occasions, far from the giant wedges of cheese from the market in the square I remember from visits to the Netherlands and which largely explain a country where it is perfectly normal and acceptable to regularly eat cheese on bread three times a day.

Happily our dutch cheese yearnings were satisfied this summer by some visiting kaaskoppjes (cheese heads - I'm told it's a term of affection. Mostly).

Behold the three large wedges of cheese they brought us. There's a country who know how to appreciate their dairy products.

The half eaten one didn't survive the first 2 hours in the fridge, it's a nice Dutch belegen boekenkast (medium mature farmers cheese). The pale one is a Gouda but a goats milk Gouda, a rather milder flavour than your standard french chevre but delicious on a dark malty bread. The dark orange cheese is an oudekaas or brokkel kaas (old cheese or crumbly cheese), considered to luxurious for bread, I'm told the real connoisseur eats it in chunks.

So our Dutch evening meal was bread, cheese (no butter, because according to family life, "zuivel op zuivel is van de Duivel" - dairy on dairy is from the Devil. Dutch puritanism is not yet dead), and a full pot of tea. Judging by the way the family fell upon it, it was well appreciated.

It's probably remiss of me not to note that while Dutch cheese is delicious and healthy, it is not without its ethical issues, ranging from animal welfare (poor Dutch Daisy has been bred to produce outrageously large amounts of milk), to climate change (all that methane) to biodiversity loss and extreme nitrification of the environment (ever notice just how green an monocultural the Netherlands is?). Attempts to fix this have also exacerbated social and cultural splits in the country gleefully leapt upon by the right wing and magnified by Putin's troll armies. So while I very much appreciate every single mouthful of Dutch cheese, it will remain a very occasional treat and my near vegan diet will continue once the bounty has been enjoyed...


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jamie@example.com
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