Super Gold Houtlandse Assche, a cheese produced by a family business in Jabbeke (West Flanders) has won second prize at the World Cheese Awards in Norway. Only one Norwegian cheese was found to be tastier.
In all the West Flemish cheesemakers entered eight of their cheeses including a cheese that has matured for 3 years that won a gold medal and the Arnoldus cheese that won a silver medal
The jury judged the Houtlandse Assche to be the world’s second best cheese. A Norwegian cheese came up tops. The Houtlandse is a strong, spicy cheese made using a kind of charcoal.
Cheese-maker Krista Stroo came up with the recipe: “It involved an awful lot of work. I’ve been making it for six years now. Every preparation you try to make improvements till you reach a good result. So tasty! You taste it’s matured. It tastes a little salty and velvety”.
The cheese is produced using milk from the family’s own herd of cows. They have a herd of 100 dapple black cows. Farmer Luc Callemeyn says the secret of the cheese’s taste is the good care given to his herd: “We come and say ‘hello’ to the cows at 6AM. It’s repeated in the evenings when we check everything is still A-OK”.
Following the victory in Norway there have even been requests from the Netherlands, cheese-maker par excellence, to import the product as well as from the United States, but the family is determined to maintain a small-scale operation.
Sofie Callemeyn: “We want to take care of the cows ourselves, feed them, milk them and only use their milk to produce our cheeses”.