Description
Aged Gouda Cheese
About Aged Gouda
Sometimes the best thing you can add to cheese is absolutely nothing.
Just time.
Our Aged Gouda is made in North Holland and matured for at least 48 months. Four years of ageing transforms the smooth, buttery character we associate with younger Gouda into something altogether more intense: dark, savoury, caramelised and absolutely packed with flavour.
The texture changes too. This is no longer the soft, supple Gouda you might put in a sandwich. It’s hard, brittle and wonderfully crunchy, breaking into little shards as you cut it.
And yes, those crunchy bits are supposed to be there!
Our Aged Gouda is known as Weydeland Rijck, with Rijck meaning rich — which is a pretty good description of what you’re about to eat.
Four Years in the Making
Gouda is one of the great Dutch cheese traditions, but one of the things I love about it is just how dramatically it changes with age.
As the cheese matures, moisture is gradually lost and its flavours become increasingly concentrated. Proteins break down, new flavour compounds develop and those wonderful crunchy crystals begin to appear.
By the time you reach 48 months, you’re dealing with an entirely different cheese from the young Gouda it started life as.
Sweetness becomes caramel and butterscotch. Gentle nuttiness becomes toasted nuts. Savoury flavours deepen and the whole thing develops an incredible umami intensity.
Nothing has been added.
Time has done all the work.
Deep Dives
I’ve written a couple of blog posts about Gouda and the crystals that are found in aged cheeses. If you’re the sort of person who wants to know why cheese gets better when you leave it alone for four years, you can disappear down those particular cheese rabbit holes!
Aged Gouda – Jen’s Tasting Notes
The first thing I notice with our Aged Gouda is the texture.
It’s firm, dense and brittle, and when you cut it you’ll often find it wants to break into chunks rather than behave itself and give you a neat slice. Throughout the paste you’ll find little crunchy crystals, one of my favourite things about properly matured cheese.
Then comes the flavour.
There’s an initial sweetness that reminds me of caramel, butterscotch and even a little fudge, followed by toasted nuts and increasingly deep savoury flavours.
There’s saltiness, sweetness and masses of umami, all concentrated into one mouthful.
And the flavour doesn’t disappear when you’ve swallowed it either. It hangs around beautifully.
This is definitely not a shy cheese.
How to Serve and Pair Aged Gouda
- Make sure you take it out of the fridge a good hour before you want to eat it so it can come up to room temperature.
- Classic pairings: Port is a classic recommendation, with its sweetness working beautifully against all those salty, caramelised flavours. Although given my slightly chequered history with Port, I’ll happily leave that glass for someone else.
- Something a little different: Personally, I’d rather have a big red. Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec has enough body to stand up to a cheese this intense.
- On the plate: Keep things fairly simple. Dried figs or apricots are lovely, as are slices of fresh pear or apple. But frankly, I’m perfectly happy breaking pieces off and eating them exactly as they are.
- In the kitchen: Don’t waste this by trying to turn it into an ordinary melting cheese. Grate a little over pasta, risotto, roasted vegetables or even scrambled eggs and let all that concentrated flavour do the work.
Jen’s note: We buy our Aged Gouda as a whole 12kg wheel, and somehow it is always down to me to cut it into more manageable quarters. Four years patiently maturing in the Netherlands… followed by several minutes of me wrestling with it behind the cheese counter.
Buying Aged Gouda
- Brand or Producer: Treur Kaas
- Product name: Weydeland Rijck (Aged Gouda)
- Milk: Cow
- Country: Netherlands
- Region: Westbeemster
- Strength: Medium but complex
- Vegetarian: Yes (vegetarian rennet)
- Suitable for pregnancy: Yes
- Allergens: MILK
Sizes and Prices
- 100g wedge, £3.00
- 500g wedge, £15.00
- An 1/8 of a wheel weighs 1.5kg and is available to order
Storage Advice
- Keep refrigerated
- Wrap in waxed paper or foil
- Remove from the fridge before serving
- Consume within 10 to 14 days of opening
Delivery and Collection
- UK wide courier delivery
- Click and collect from our Pangbourne shop
- Free local delivery available for selected postcodes
Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, salt, starter cultures, rennet
