"Have some of this, it's good." The Norwegian hands you an open faced sandwich with a slice of something redish brown, "it's 'Brunost', brown cheese."

It doesn't look like cheese, you think, but it can't be as bad as some of the stuff you have heard they eat in this country so you take a bite.

"No way is this cheese!" you exclaim. And you are perfectly correct.

Cheesemaking all over the world consists of separating the curds from the whey, and making some sort of cheese from the curds. The whey is then flushed down the drain or used as cattle feed. More recently whey proteins have become popular as an ingredient in health food and dietary supplements for body-builders. But in some parts of the world it has been good food for centuries. In Italy it is used to make Ricotta, in Norway it is used to make Brunost.

Real cheeses are made only from the curds. Ricotta, Brunost and similar, although often called cheeses where they are produced, are technically Whey based dairy products.

History

For more than 300 years Norwegian farmers have made cheeses from cow's milk and goat's milk and turned the leftover whey into different kinds of foodstuffs. Many strange concoctions existed and some of these are available regionally today. The simplest was to just boil out most of the water from the cow's whey, and shape the remainder into a sweet, low-fat, pale reddish brown 'cheese'. This is the most basic type of brown cheese and is simply called Mysost, 'whey cheese'. By mixing in cream, or using goat's milk, or a combination of goat's and cow's milk, and/or by leaving more water in the mix, all of todays brown cheeses came into existence¹.

Variations

Brunost (lit. brown cheese) is the generic name for lots of different products, but ask the average Norwegian and she will tell you either that the particular type she prefers is the real Brunost, or that Brunost is a misnomer and that it's really Raudost (lit. red cheese). This entry will treat all the different types alike and not play favourites². Brunost taste comes mainly from caramelised lactose and hence the product is sweet, with a hint of caramel, and tastes nothing like cheese at all. The use of goat's milk in some types adds another uncomparable taste that takes a little getting used to.

Main types of brown cheese are:

Prim

With a water content above 30%³, making it spreadable, Prim is almost a Brunost cousin. The taste is pure Brunost however, and in some dialects Prim is the word for all Brunosts.

Ekte Geitost

Ekte Geitost is made with whey, milk and cream from goats. It has the most pronounced taste of all the Brunosts. The name translates to Real (or Genuine) Goat Cheese. There is a small export of Ekte Geitost.

Fløtemysost

Cream Whey Cheese is made from whey, milk and cream from cows. It has a milder taste than both Ekte Geitost and Gudbrandsdalsost.

Gudbrandsdalsost

Gudbrandsdalsost is named after the valley in Norway where it was first produced to sell outside the area. It uses whey, milk and cream from cows, and adds goat's milk. There is some production for export and it is sold as Gudbrandsdalen in other Scandinavia countries, Norgold in Germany, and Ski Queen in UK, North America and Australia.

Production and use

Is Brunost still popular today, you ask? The answer would be Yes. Annual production is aproximately twelve million kg, or almost four kg per Norwegian. 50% of this is Gudbrandsdalsost, 30% is Fløtemysost, and 8-10% is Ekte Geitost. The remainder is other varieties and small scale production for sale straight from the farm.

The first step in the making of Brunost is removing the curds. The whey must not contain any remains of curds, rennet or lactic bacteria so today it is often pasteurized and centrifuged. Then milk and cream is added to the whey and it is boiled until it is a thick brown mass (in industrial production the initial dehydration is done with other methods than boiling). The brown colour appears at the end of the process when the mass reaches about 100 degrees Celsius. Several factors influence the colour, but a darker colour means a more pronounced taste, and a larger risk of it getting burned. The next step is to cool the mass quickly to about 80 degrees while stirring vigourously so the sugar forms small crystals with an even distribution.

Even though no preservatives are added⁴ Brunost can be kept in the fridge for about four months, and up to a year at -8 degrees Celsius*. At lower temperatures the water freezes and ruins the 'cheese'.

The main use of Brunost is on sandwiches. It is also used in sauces and as an accessory to lutefisk, but these are minor compared to the use on slices of bread, rolls and Norwegian waffles.

To get nice slices it is essential to have a cheese plane⁵ as it is almost impossible to use a knife on Brunost in a controlled manner. The texture is cheese like, but because of the high sugar content Brunost is much stickier than 'real cheeses'⁶. Next to cross country skiing and trolls there are few things more Norwegian than an open faced sandwich with Brunost.