Price range: £4.00 through £40.00
Norway’s wonderfully unusual brown whey cheese. Dense, fudgy and caramel-sweet with flavours of toffee and browned butter. Think Caramac in cheese form!
Gjetost is a Marmite cheese if ever there was one.
People either taste it and immediately want another piece, or look at me as though I’ve completely lost my mind.
I’m firmly in the first camp.
This extraordinary Norwegian brown whey cheese is unlike almost anything else in our counter. It’s dense, smooth, sweet and caramel-like, with flavours somewhere between fudge, toffee and cheese.
Ali describes it as Caramac in cheese form (I had to ask her what Caramac was, which didn’t go down particularly well…)
Technically, Gjetost belongs to the Norwegian family of brown whey cheeses known as brunost. Traditionally associated with goat’s milk — geit means goat in Norwegian — versions can be made with goat’s milk, cow’s milk or a mixture of the two.
And the way it’s made is just as unusual as the flavour.
Gjetost is a brilliant example of cheesemakers making use of absolutely everything.
Rather than throwing away the whey left behind after cheesemaking, Norwegian farmers heated it slowly for hours, evaporating the water and concentrating the milk sugars.
Eventually, the mixture becomes thick, sweet and brown before being cooled and moulded into those distinctive blocks.
The result isn’t remotely like a Cheddar, Brie or blue cheese. It’s smooth and dense, almost fudgy, and has been part of Norwegian food culture for generations.
You’ll find brunost on Norwegian breakfast tables, packed into lunches and eaten with bread, waffles and crispbreads.
Which brings us to my family…
The first thing you notice is the colour.
Gjetost is a deep caramel brown, which gives you a fairly good clue about what’s coming next.
The texture is smooth, dense and slightly fudgy. Slice it thinly and it almost melts on your tongue.
Then comes the flavour.
Caramel. Toffee. Fudge. Browned butter.
There’s a gentle tang and a slightly savoury edge underneath all that sweetness, which stops it feeling quite like confectionery.
But only just.
This is definitely not a cheese for everyone. We put it out for customers to taste and generally get one of two reactions:
“Oh my goodness, that’s delicious.”
Or…
“What on earth did you just give me?”
There is very little middle ground.
Personally, I love it. Perhaps it’s my Scandinavian roots coming through.
Jen’s note: My Grandad’s family were Danish and he used to tell me that when he was a child he’d take Gjetost to school in his pocket. He’d let it warm up, roll it into a little ball and suck it like a sweet! I’m not entirely sure that’s how the Norwegians intended it to be eaten, but perhaps my love of this wonderfully strange cheese was inevitable.
Sizes and Prices
Storage Advice
Delivery and Collection
Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, cream (MILK), Sweet rennet whey (MILK)
Normal opening Monday – Saturday 9am – 4pm until:
Sunday 22nd 9am – 4pm
Monday 23rd 9am – 4pm
Christmas Eve 9am – 12pm
Christmas Day Closed
Boxing Day Closed
Friday 27th Closed
Saturday 28th 9am – 4pm
Sunday 29th Closed
Monday 30th 9am – 2pm
Tuesday 31st 9am – 2pm
New Year’s Day Closed
Thursday 2nd January Closed
Friday 3rd 9am – 4pm then open as normal
After Christmas our courier delivery slots start from 8th January.
