Jarlsberg

What is Jarlsberg Cheese?

Jarlsberg comes from the former countship of Jarlsberg in what is now Vestfold, Norway, and takes its name from Jarlsberg Manor. The story starts in the mid-1850s with Anders Larsen Bakke, a farmer and dairy pioneer in the village of Vale, about 80 km (50 mi) south of Oslo. His cheese resembled Emmental, which Swiss cheesemakers had brought to Vestfold in the 1830s. County records first mention it in 1855. Production grew, then the cheese vanished from the market.

The modern version dates to 1956, when Ole Martin Ystgaard of the Dairy Institute at the Agricultural University of Norway rebuilt the recipe from Swiss formulae. A thesis by dairy sciences student Per Sakshaug on the old Vestfold cheese pointed him there. The name honors Count Wedel Jarlsberg, or the county itself.

The exact process is a trade secret. Bacteria called Propionibacterium freudenreichii occur naturally in milk and get added back during production, and they open up the medium to large holes the cheese is known for. Jarlsberg ages at least three months, with some versions held 9, 12 or 15 months. Standard wheels weigh 10 kilograms (22 lb), measure roughly 330 millimetres (13 in) across and stand 95 to 105 millimetres (3.7 to 4.1 in) tall.

Under a yellow wax rind sits a semi-firm yellow interior, smooth and shiny, with a creamy, supple texture. The taste is mild and buttery, described as clean and rich with a slightly sweet, nutty edge.

This is an all-purpose cheese. It cooks well and works as a snack on its own. In Norway it tops Grandiosa, the country's best-selling frozen pizza. Tine SA is the largest producer, and Jarlsberg is also made under license in Ireland by Dairygold and in Ohio in the United States. It reached the U.S. market in 1964 and is now the most popular imported cheese there, with annual U.K. sales of 6.9m pounds as of 2013 and a strong following in Australia.