{"id":2384,"date":"2025-03-04T04:25:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T04:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/norwegians-love-sweet-creamy-brunost-but-is-it-technically-cheese\/"},"modified":"2025-03-04T04:25:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T04:25:38","slug":"norwegians-love-sweet-creamy-brunost-but-is-it-technically-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/norwegians-love-sweet-creamy-brunost-but-is-it-technically-cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwegians Love Sweet & Creamy Brunost, But is it Technically Cheese?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Norway, a country whose most iconic cultural export is painter Edvard Munch\u2019s depiction of the agony of human existence, would like to offer a more upbeat alternative. This January, when Mona Juhl, the Norwegian Ambassador to the United Nations, began her term as president of the UN Security Council, she presented each council member with a welcome gift of brunost<\/em>, a treasured native foodstuff, literally translated as brown cheese (Hardcore Munch fans might call it Scream<\/em> cheese). <\/p>\n

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Brunost<\/em> is blocky, beige, sweet and savory. In Norway, it\u2019s a popular ice cream flavor. In South Korea\u2014where sweet and salty combinations are common\u2014it\u2019s caught on as a trendy pizza topping<\/a>. First made on a small Norwegian farmstead in 1863, and then brought to Oslo where it was exposed to a much larger market, brunost <\/em>boomed in popularity, becoming one of Norway\u2019s staple foods within decades. It\u2019s such a culinary icon that Solbr\u00e5setra<\/a>, the farm where brunost<\/em> was first made has been preserved as a national historic site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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What is Brunost?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As befits any item brought to the table of the UN Security Council, brunost<\/em> is a bit controversial. According to the U.S. FDA, Norway\u2019s brown cheese is technically not cheese at all. Its main ingredient is the whey left behind after curds have been removed in the cheesemaking process. <\/p>\n

The remnant whey is combined with milk, cream or a combination of the two, then boiled until most of the water evaporates and the sugars caramelize to a golden color. The resulting semi-soft mass, sold in rectangular portions, has a uniform sheen with no distinction between rind and paste. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean it\u2019s not cheese?!\u201d exclaimed lifelong brunost<\/em> afficionado Brady Simpson upon learning the truth about his favorite breakfast treat. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Simpson first fell for the stuff as a 7-year-old boy hanging on the apron strings of his Norwegian nanny. \u201cShe served it on crepes and I was instantly in love with it. I\u2019ve never stopped eating it since,\u201d says Simpson. \u201cToday I put it on egg sandwiches pretty much every weekend.\u201d The creator of Peanut<\/a>, an online tool that provides international travelers with covid entry requirements and quarantine details, Simpson has used his own travels as an opportunity to try a variety of artisanal brunosts <\/em>in Scandinavia and even had a Norwegian colleague ship him a ten pound block of his favorite, from the Norwegian fjord town of Flam. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of anyone refer to it as anything other than cheese,\u201d he said, acknowledging that this new information only makes brunost <\/em>more intriguing. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a great conversation starter when we have friends over for brunch.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Brunost: Love it or Leave it<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Part of what makes those conversations interesting, he explained, is that with its unfamiliar look, taste and texture, brunost<\/em> can be polarizing. \u201cEveryone I\u2019ve had try it has a different reaction, said Simpson. \u201cMy wife won\u2019t eat it at all.\u00a0 But I\u2019m someone who does seek out different and unusual foods. I love durian, for instance.\u201d While not nearly as intense as that much debated South Asian fruit, brunost<\/em> has a flavor that likewise eludes easy description; its variable sweet, sour and salty notes are dependent on individual makers\u2019 particular ratios of cream to milk and of cow\u2019s milk to goat\u2019s milk. Ski Queen<\/a>, the only brand of brunost<\/em> imported to the U.S. from Norway, comes in a Classic blended milk version which tastes vaguely like a hybrid of Kraft\u00ae caramel and a mild muenster and the saltier, funkier Ski Queen Goat. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

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How to Enjoy Brunost<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Brunost<\/em> is traditionally enjoyed in small servings: Paper-thin leaves are shaved from the block with a wire slicer or cheese plane and placed on toast or crispbreads. Brunost<\/em> shavings are also commonly set to melt atop fried eggs and fresh waffles. In Norway, travelers will rarely find a hotel breakfast without brown cheese on hand.<\/p>\n

If sliced thickly, the texture of fresh-from-the-fridge brunost<\/em> can be somewhat offputting, with an oddly synthetic mouthfeel that evokes children\u2019s polymer modeling clay. But larger quantities work well incorporated in baked goods such as apple pie and muffins, and in savory stroganoffs and casseroles. <\/p>\n

One of the most appealing applications for brunost<\/em> is in a fondue; melted and mixed with cinnamon, sugar, cream and cognac it makes an offbeat but delicious dip for strawberries and bananas, perhaps accompanied by cubed poundcake or gingerbread.<\/p>\n

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Brunost in the US<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While many Norwegians enjoy brown cheese on a daily basis and in myriad preparations, brunost<\/em> remains largely under the radar in the U.S. Even though Whole Foods has recently begun to stock Ski Queen nationally, says Valerie Liu, a spokesperson for Tine<\/a>, Ski Queen\u2019s Norwegian parent company brunost<\/em> is still primarily purchased in cities with Norwegian-American clientele. \u201cMinneapolis is a strong market for us,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Currently, only about $200,000 of Ski Queen is sold in the U.S. annually says Liu, a mere nibble of the market share held by Tine\u2019s flagship American import, Jarlsberg. \u201cWe haven\u2019t really taken the brand to the next level yet. We\u2019re looking to do a lot of sampling after the pandemic so more people can get a first taste.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norway, a country whose most iconic cultural export is painter Edvard Munch\u2019s depiction of the agony of human existence, would like to offer a more upbeat alternative. This January, when Mona Juhl, the Norwegian Ambassador to the United Nations, began her term as president of the UN Security Council, she presented each council member with … Okumaya devam et “Norwegians Love Sweet & Creamy Brunost, But is it Technically Cheese?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}