Edamame
Edamame
History
Edam cheese has its name and much of its history from the Netherlands. It is from the town of Edam, which is only a short drive from the big city of Amsterdam. It has its characteristic round shape from the mold in which they were made; so-called kaaskop, which means cheese head. The shape also made it easy to unload the boats for the farmers, where they let their cheeses roll in chutes into the warehouses in the city.
In Norway, Edam had been imported for a long time and the cheese was known through the large Norwegian timber export to Holland, which took off in the 16th century. Norwegian production of edam started towards the end of the 19th century and took up the competition with the large imports from Holland.
Type description
Edamer is a mild hard cheese that we in Norway largely associate with Christmas. It comes in red and black packaging. The color indicates storage time with 6 months for the red and 12 months for the black.
The cheese is a half-fat cheese with a slightly higher salt content than its close relative Gauda. Edam is very suitable for storage. A good cheese tip is to buy it on sale after the New Year and store it in the fridge until summer.