I seldom buy Dutch cheese. I put this down to overdosing on it in my student days. Edam was cheap and easily available, and both Edam and Gouda had a reputation for being very low in calories - the Slimming magazines we devoured were full of recipes and meal suggestions that used them.
But as my taste in cheese has, like a good cheese, matured, I've lost interest in the rather bland flavour and slightly rubbery texture of those old friends. So I was very pleasantly surprised when I cut a piece of Old Amsterdam and flexed it, to see if that rubberiness was there -and it SNAPPED! Not a hint of rubberiness, it is a proper mature cheese texture with that firmer texture that gives it a much more satisfying mouth feel.
The taste, too, was anything but bland. It has a lovely strong, nutty flavour that marks it out in my book as a Serious Cheese. Just one thing about it puzzles me. The blurb on the pack says "it has ripening crystals that guarantee its constant quality". What the heck is a ripening crystal?
Ripening crystals or not, I'll definitely be buying it again!
Have to look that one up Jane
ReplyDeleteThe "ripening crystals" are those lovely crunchy bits you occasionally bite on, just as in a fine old, very mature Cheddar cheese.
ReplyDeleteI meant to say, "lovely crunchy bits of salt..."
DeleteThank you for your wonderful blog; I'm enjoying it a great deal!