Cheesy Christmas 24: Gouda à la Truffe

Today’s cheese was a true discovery… and a happy one at that.

Of course gouda cheese is nothing new, it’s fairly well known… but let’s dig a little deeper…

Gouda is, of course, a cheese that comes from Holland, another country that’s well known for all things dairy.

I remember early in our marriage when we discovered a Dutch farmer and cheesemaker, who lived on Prince Edward Island, at one of the big Christmas craft markets. He had several dozen different types of Gouda cheese that he made. He put all kinds of different things in them… pesto, crushed chillies, various herbs, etc. The combinations were novel and surprising at the time, but after tasting samples (of course he had samples), we were sold and brought home several different types.

Gouda in general is a mild cheese, so it’s easy enough to ‘dress up’ the flavour a bit. That was the case for today’s cheese… Truffle Gouda.

Day #24: Gouda à la Truffe

Name: Gouda à la Truffe
‘Truffe’ is the French word for ‘truffle’. I wasn’t all that cultured growing up in Eastern Canada, where the population was relatively homogenous back in the 1970s and 80s. As a result, we thought we were cultured when we were introduced to ‘chocolate truffles’. But none of that here today. Real truffles are actually a type of tuber (potato is an example of a tuber… a fruit that grows from the root of a plant) produced by an underground fungus. Since they grow underground, they’re not that easy to either (a) cultivate or (b) find… where does one start to look? Traditionally, pigs have been used to help locate them with their keen sense of smell.
Region: Holland
Though the cheese comes from Holland, the truffles themselves are apparently from Italy (although there are areas in France that are well known for their truffles as well).
Milk: pasteurized Cow milk
Our Score: 5/5
I don’t know what it is about day 24, but last year the day 24 cheese, Comté, scored a 5/5 as well. Maybe we’re just not wanting to get on Santa’s bad side just before the big visit!? Who knows, but either way, this cheese was really, really good. The truffle gave it a fairly distinct smell – not unpleasant, but definitely not simply ‘pure gouda’. As you can see from the picture below, it’s not like there was tons of truffle bits in it, but there was apparently enough.

It’s not for the faint of wallet though… coming in at around 38€/kg (over $50 CDN for 1 kg or 0.45lbs). 😳

A nice way to end off Cheesy Christmas 2021.

Cheese quote of the day

Today, let me finish with not one, but two cheese quotes, the first by Italian journalist and novelist Italo Calvino, and the second by American chef, James Beard.

“Each cheese reveals a pasture of a different green, under a different sky.”
Italo Calvino

“Good cheese needs good companions.”
James Beard

Thanks for following our Cheesy Christmas journey. Over the past 24 days, we have certainly discovered different fields, of different shades of green, under different skies, and without a doubt… the company has been good.

Here’s our takeaway… Next time you go to buy cheese, take a minute, before consuming it, to find out a little bit about it. Who knows, it may just taste a wee bit better and, in a time when travel has been all but completed restricted… it may just allow you a few moments of virtual travel and discovery.