Many cheeses come and go from the inside of my fridge, many will make a return visit, others will never darken my doors again. To say that cheddar is a constant would be true, though the make has never been because I just can't find one that tips the balance in it's favour and makes me want to stick with it. Goats cheese, yes good, danish blue or stilton depending on whether I have any port in the house at the time. So many cheeses so little space.

Norwegian Jarlsberg, however, is a true friend and constant visitor to Mr Tummy. (I apologise now for that sentence!)

Jarlsberg cheese is made from pasteurised cows milk and was first produced in 1815. So it's really a Great - Great Grandfather of the cheese world.

How lovely it would be to say it is manufactured in picturesque little farms. On the contrary, it is infact produced in large factories under, one might say, laboratory condition.

The bacteria used for making the holes we all know and love, and for giving it the slightly sweet taste, are cultivated in controlled conditions and added to the curd midway through the process. No farmers wive's in white aprons ringing out the cheesecloth here. (Do you ring out cheesecloth?) No, all is taken very seriously as it goes through many stages before producing the final 201b wheel. Can you imagine 20lbs of cheese. Suddenly I get an image I don't really want!

So, enough of the facts - What's the cheese like?

Well. One could say it has a nutty flavour, reminiscent of the walnut groves in the far reaches of Tuscanny.

But that would mean nothing to anyone and makes no sense. I'm not even sure if they have walnut trees in Tuscanny.

To look at, Jarlsberg is a yellow colour full of big holes with a yellow waxy rind. It basically looks like edam only all in yellow.

Is it like Edam? No. It is certainly a lot less rubbery than edam, and I find Edam quite
sickening after awhile. Jarlsberg I could eat for days without stopping. It's much more similar to Leerdammer, only nicer!

It's quite a hard cheese, a tough little cookie to cut through with a blunting knife. Mmmm, cookies.

It is incredibly versatile, a really good cheese to cook with. I often add a few slices on to normal cheese on toast just to give it a bit more of a bite.

If you eat meat - here'sa good sandwich idea:

2 Rashers of Bacon (grilled)
4 Slices of Jarlsberg Cheese (or as many as you want!)
2 Slices of good ham.
Slices of tomato


Grill it until the cheese has melted!

Lovely!

And for the veggies:

Use it to replace bacon in a BLT, simply grate the cheese, put a tiny amount of oil into a frying pan and sprinkle the cheese in forming into a bacon size. Within a minute it will begin to melt and go crispy. Once it is strong to lift without drooping in a melty kinda way - place it into your sandwich with the Lettuce, Tomato and Mayonnaise. I usually put 3 or 4 of these things into mine. It's fab.

Other than my sandwiches above you can use Jarlsberg for anything to replace any other cheese. It melts, it fries, it grills and it's just so damn tasty.

Price wise it's not the cheapest of cheeses. I pay around £2.20 for a pre-packed lump. It's about £7.50 per KG from somewhere like Tesco.

Go on. Treat yourself.

You won't regret it.

Well you might if you don't like it.

But you will.

Unless you don't like cheese.

In which case, pretend you didn't read any of the above and click on Very Useful below to exit> (tehe!)