Weydeland: North Holland pasture cheese across the full aging range

Who's Behind It

Weydeland is a North Holland brand from the Beemster, the polder in the green heart above Amsterdam. The cheese is a Gouda style, a Dutch hard cheese, made from 100% pasture milk. The cows graze outdoors at least 120 days a year, minimum six hours a day, and the milk is processed shortly after milking. The rennet is vegetarian, and production carries "On the way to PlanetProof" with CO2-neutral processing and a Lean and Green transport certificate. For the kitchen that means cheese you can deploy on the menu and in dishes without reservation.

What Really Sets It Apart

The fertile clay ground of North Holland gives rich pastures, and that grass sits in the milk and thus in the flavor. More important for you as chef: Weydeland runs the whole aging range with one recognizable flavor line. Young (4-8 weeks) is mild and melts smooth. Mature comes around 16 weeks, extra mature around 26 weeks, with more salt and body. Old and vintage sit at 10+ months, and the crumbly ages 2 years or longer into a dry, crystalline cheese with protein crystals that crunch between the teeth. So you're not choosing eight separate cheeses, but eight stages of the same base.

How You Stand Out with This

Work with moisture content. The young and young mature melt even without greasing out, ideal for gratin, croque and sauces; the young grated saves you handling in the kitchen. Mature and extra mature give as a rasp body to pasta and risotto without overpowering texture. The old cheeses you save for the board: old sliceable stays supple on the board, while crumbly breaks into coarse chunks you deploy as a savory accent. On the menu you read recognizably Dutch, with a story that holds: pasture time, short milk processing and an aging you pick per course yourself.