Cheese is delicious but how gouda can it get? Personally, gouda takes the cake for being so versatile and rich in flavor. Gouda is coated in a range of waxy coatings as it ages to perfection. Plenty of cheeses have edible rinds, but waxes are a little different. Wax serves as a seal to keep cheese hydrated while it ages. Rind is great and flavorful while wax really shouldn’t be eaten. But enough about the wax, Gouda is the spotlight for April’s cheese.
An important aspect of gouda is the time it’s aged. Starting with the softest cheese, Mild Gouda is wrapped in soft wax and aged for a very short period of a few weeks to a couple of months. The cheese is soft and creamy, almost melting in the mouth with a mild tang. It’s perfect to slice and melt on burgers, add to salads, bake into mac & cheese, and top on a cracker for a snack. Mild Gouda is a young variant that stands out with a gorgeous signature red wax coating. This cheese is sure to please with a wonderful and lasting creamy note.
Jumping to the other end of the aging scale, Aged Gouda is incredibly far from mild Gouda in flavor profiles. At the very beginning of the slicing process, it comes wrapped in an ominous black wax. The wax alone can take upwards of one hour to simply peel off. Once un-coated, the cheese has a hard rind to cut through. On the inside, the cheese is semi-soft but on the harder side. It contains pockets of calcium crystals, giving the cheese the slightest sprinkle of a crunch. Since it’s aged so long, the cheese has a strong, nutty, and rich flavor. A great snacking cheese, Aged Gouda offers a unique taste that’s great when added to mac & cheese or soup. For some, the longer it’s aged the better. Plain-aged Goudas are seemingly simple but so complex from the moment a wheel is formed. Thankfully flavors have become more advanced and the cheese has become far more complex in both taste and texture.
Gouda becomes fancy when decorated with a pinch of herbs and spices. A twist in flavor, Gouda with Herb is a hearty flavorful cheese. The cheese is a yellowed cut block with an addition of herbs like paprika, chives, and onion. It’s by far one of the tastiest goudas to cut up for a snack. Just as delicious is Gouda with Basil and Garlic, or Gouda with Olives and Tomato. With so many variants of gouda, there’s almost no limit to how good gouda can get. The traditionally Dutch, aged cheese is the perfect addition to any snack time or party.