Food WTF: Gjetost

Clockwise from left: Saga blue (Denmark), dill havarti (Denmark), and Ski Queen gjetost (Norway)

Oddly appealing and totally addictive, this cheese is both sweet and salty. My husband said it reminded him of peanut butter, both in color in flavor. (I thought it was sweeter than peanut butter.) The texture is somewhere between cheese and fudge.

From http://www.norwegiancheeses.co.uk/ski_queen.htm

Gjetost (pronounced ‘yet-oast’) is a unique brown cheese from Norway with a fudge-like texture and a sweet caramel flavour.

It is made from a combination of milk, cream and whey which is slowly cooked until the naturally occurring sugars are caramelised, giving its distinctive colour and taste. The cheese is then cooled and set into blocks.

Gjetost was first made in the Gudbrandsdalen valley in Norway more than 130 years ago. Anne Hov, a farmer’s wife, was the first person to think of pouring cream into the kettle of whey. Her brown cheese got a higher price than her ordinary cheese and butter, and is reputed to have saved the valley from financial ruin in the 1880s.

Gjetost is best served in wafer thin slices and eaten on toast or Norwegian flatbread (very thin crackers). It is also makes a great addition to a cheese board or melted into a variety of food dishes.