Day 18: Smoked Gouda Cheese from St. Lawrence Market

A cheese from Chris the Cheesemonger at St. Lawrence Market. The thing I don't like about this gouda is the texture. It's a little sticky, pasting to the roof of the mouth like peanut butter.

But in terms of flavour, the actual cheese only has a hint of smoke but a touch of maple syrup flavour rounds out the aftertaste. The colour is an appealing brownish white, like the flesh of an almond. The rind is where the smokiness really comes in, and evokes childhood memories of sitting around a campfire.

Like most cheeses, the real flavours come out after letting sit at room temperature so make you enjoy it as such.

On Gouda Cheese, from wikipedia:

"Gouda is a yellow cheese made from cow's milk. The cheese is named after the city of Gouda in the Netherlands, but its name is not protected. However, the European Commission has confirmed that Gouda Holland is to be protected (although Gouda will not).

The cheese is from cultured milk that is heated until the curds separate from the whey. Some of the whey is then drained, and water is added. This is called "washing the curd", and creates a sweeter cheese, as the washing removes some of the lactic acid.

The cheese is then soaked in a brine solution, which gives the cheese and its rind a distinctive taste. The cheese is dried for a few days before being coated to prevent it from drying out, then it is aged. Depending on age classification, it can be any time between a number of weeks to over seven years before it is ready to be eaten. As it ages, it develops a caramel sweetness and sometimes has a slight crunchiness from salt-like calcium lactate or tyrosine crystals[4] that form in older cheeses.