Gouda vs Edam Compared
The short answer
Gouda and Edam are both Dutch, and on the pack they look like close cousins. Gouda lists pasteurised cow milk, salt, starter, microbial rennet and beta carotene for colour. Edam lists pasteurised cow milk, salt, starter, microbial rennet and E160a for colour. So what separates them is not what goes in. It happens in the making, in how the curd is handled and how the wheel is aged. If you are choosing between them for the fridge at home, the honest answer is to try both.
How each one is made
Both start with pasteurised cow milk. Starter culture goes in early. That is the bacteria that works on the milk sugars and builds the savoury base of the cheese. Then comes microbial rennet, which sets the milk into curd. The curd is cut, stirred and drained, salted, pressed into a wheel, and left to age.
The lists really are that short. Gouda's colour comes from beta carotene. Edam's is written as E160a. If you like the idea of a list with no colouring on it at all, Maasdam is milk, salt, starter culture and rennet.
The last part of the making happens here. We bring these in as whole wheels from Europe, then cut and pack them in Auckland. A wheel that stays whole until we cut it holds together better than one cut and wrapped months earlier on the other side of the world. It also means you can buy a piece the size you will actually eat.
How they taste, side by side
The only way to settle gouda vs edam for yourself is to put them next to each other and eat them.
Buy a piece of each. Take them out of the fridge a while before you sit down, so they are not fridge-cold when they hit your tongue. Cut both to about the same thickness so you are comparing like with like. Slice, do not crumble.
Taste them plain to start. No crackers, no chutney, no quince paste. Those things are good, but they sit on top of the cheese and make the comparison harder. Have water beside you and take a mouthful between each one.
Pay attention in order. First the texture against your teeth, then what happens as it softens, then what stays in your mouth after you have swallowed. Go back and forward between them a couple of rounds. The differences that matter to you will show up on the second pass more than the first.
Add Maasdam to the line-up if you want a wider spread to judge against. Three pieces on a board is still a small amount of cheese, and it turns a shopping decision into something you did on a Tuesday night rather than something you looked up.
Which one to buy for what
Buy the one you liked. That sounds glib, but palates differ, and neither of these is a cheese you save for a birthday.
For a block that lives in the fridge and gets used for toast, sandwiches and lunchboxes, Traditional Dutch Gouda Cheese is milk, salt, starter, microbial rennet and beta carotene, and nothing else.
If you want a smaller piece to eat through in a week, Dutch Edam Cheese 210g has the same short list, with the colouring written as E160a.
And if you would rather skip the colouring, Dutch Maasdam Cheese 280g is milk, salt, starter culture and rennet.
All are cut from the wheel here, so you can buy for the week rather than for the occasion.
How to keep them
The Gouda pack asks you to keep it refrigerated between +1°C and +5°C. The Edam pack asks for the same. So does the Maasdam.
In practice that means the main body of your fridge, not the door, where the temperature swings every time someone goes looking for milk. Wrap the cut face so it does not dry out. For more on wrapping, resting and serving, see How to Store & Handle Artisan Cheese.