What Cumin Gouda Tastes Like
What Cumin Gouda actually is
Cumin gouda is a Dutch gouda with cumin through it. It is made in the Netherlands. The pack lists pasteurised meadow cow milk, salt, cumin, starter milk, microbial rennet and carotene for colour. Cumin is 0.9 per cent of the cheese. That is the whole recipe.
So this is not a flavoured cheese in the way people sometimes mean it. There is no smoke, no herb blend, no coating. It is gouda, and one spice.
The wheels come to us whole. We cut and pack them here in Auckland, which means the cut face is fresh rather than something that travelled across the world already portioned. You buy a piece off a wheel, not a piece that has been sitting in its own plastic since Rotterdam.
What it tastes like
Start with the texture, because that is the part we can be precise about. It is smooth and sliceable, and it melts beautifully without losing character. That last bit matters. Some cheeses go slack and oily under heat and taste of not much afterwards. This one holds its own.
On flavour, cumin is the only flavouring on the ingredients list. There is no herb mix hiding behind it and nothing added to push it along. What you get is gouda, milk and salt, with the cumin running through it at a level you can read on the pack.
If you have had cumin in cooking, you already know the direction it goes.
How to serve it
Because it melts without losing character, heat is where it earns its keep. Grate it into a toasted sandwich with a smear of mustard. Put it over a baked potato or roast kumara and let it go under the grill. Stir it through a white sauce for cauliflower. Fold it into scrambled eggs at the end, off the heat, so it just softens.
Cold, slice it thin. It sits well on rye or a dense wholemeal, with gherkins or pickled onions to cut through it. Cured meats work. So does apple.
Take it out of the fridge a good while before you eat it. Cold cheese eaten straight from the door of the fridge tastes flat, and this one has flavour worth waiting for.
It is also a decent everyday sandwich cheese. Lunchboxes, toasties after work, the block you slice off standing at the bench. You do not need an occasion for it.
How to keep it once it is cut
The pack asks you to keep it refrigerated between +1°C and +5°C. That is the coldest part of your fridge, not the door.
Wrap it so the cut face is covered but the cheese can still breathe a little. Cling film pressed flat against the surface will do at a pinch, changed when it gets damp. Waxed paper is better. If the cut face dries or darkens, pare a thin layer off and carry on.
For more on wrapping, cutting and bringing cheese back to temperature, see How to Store & Handle Artisan Cheese.
Where to buy Cumin Gouda in New Zealand
You can order it from us online. We import the wheels whole and cut and pack them in Auckland, so what arrives has been portioned here rather than months ago and elsewhere.
The retail pack is 170 g, which is a sensible amount to get through in a week of sandwiches without committing to a slab.