Dave's Cheese Notes: Artikaas 36 Month Aged Gouda
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Aged Gouda is not like unaged Gouda. If you’re only used to the soft, new Gouda in the bright red wax, then this will be quite the shock. I remember when I bought my first aged Gouda long ago and it was a real experience. Ah, I was such a young cheese dude then.
This time, I knew what I was getting into. Here’s the Artikaas 36 Month Aged Gouda:
I think my picture perfectly demonstrates the texture of this cheese. It looks waxy and crumbly and it is waxy and crumbly. In fact, when you chew this cheese, it is chewy in a way that I can only describe as being somewhat waxy. I don’t mean that as an insult. But it is interesting.
It’s a fairly strong flavor. Not in the "stinky cheese" way, but sharp.
Artikaas has a pretty fun website. And there’s a page for the 36 month cheese:
The official description is:
…rich flavors of butterscotch, whiskey and pecan … deep ocher interior and a firm, crumbly texture … with crunchy, mouth watering crystals.
"Mouth watering crystals" is a phrase you don’t see every day, but I agree with the description. In fact, pecan is something that wouldn’t have occurred to me, but I do get that.
The company Artikaas claims to have six generations of Dutch cheese makers. But it has no Wikipedia entry and I’m super confused by this company info (cheeseconnoisseur.com):
Artikaas has been a family-run cheesemaker in Holland for more than six generations… Artikaas was founded nine years ago when a producer, Royal-A Ware, wanted to sell…
Well, which is it?
By the way, my cheese book (todo: link to it when I’ve got my review up) says that I’ve been pronouncing "Gouda" wrong my entire life. It’s not "GOO-dah" but "GAOW-duh".
In fact, Artikaas has a translation of "Don’t touch my Gouda" ("Blijf van mijn Gouda af!") which you can listen to. So I did. And it’s definitely "GAOW-duh" with a Dutch hard G (wikipedia.org).
I’ll try to remember that.
As for eating this stuff, I found that I didn’t love snacking on it alone.
But when I paired it with a fairly flavorful and crunchy cracker, that changed the experience a lot. It also matches what Steven Jenkins recommends - serving it grated over potatoes or with fruit and bread. I also enjoyed it with the cracker plus a somewhat sweet Soppressata salami. That was downright delicious.
Until next time, stay cheesy my friends.