CHEESE FROM THE HEART
Once the milk has been creamed off and pasteurised, we add rennet and a starter culture to it, which gives it the delicious flavour that is typical of our cheese. It creates a thick mass, which we call curd. The curd is stirred and cut until a liquid is released, the “whey”, which is used as an ingredient in baby-food. We then put the curd into the cheese moulds and press them into the perfect cheese shape. The real flavour comes from the brine bath, where we leave them to soak in the (salty) cultures that make De Graafstroom’s cheese so distinctive. After the brine bath, our cheeses are given a protective layer to prevent them losing too much moisture and which helps them keep their quality. Finally, our cheeses are left to mature on the original wooden planks in our cheese warehouse before they are sent to the shops and are taken home to eat.
Our smooth new cheese (jonge kaas), our soft, slightly matured cheese (jong belegen), our silky mature (belegen) and our pithy old cheese (oude kaas) are all delicious and healthy: We to produce fat and salt contents that are as low as possible in our distinctive cheeses. We call it “cheese from the heart”: cheese made with lots of love, passion and dedication, with the milk from the best cows in the green heart of the Netherlands, the Groene Hart region and its surroundings.
Would you like to find out more about cheese? Have a look at the website of the Dutch Dairy Organisation, www.zuivelonline.nl
