You don’t see sheep cheese from the Netherlands every day, so I leaped on this one as soon I learned of it. The Dutch make mountains of cow’s milk cheese—about 2 billion pounds a year—but not much else. Goat cheese amounts to less than three percent of the country’s production and sheep cheese is barely a blip. But maybe that’s changing. Ewephoria, a sheep Gouda crafted for the American market about 20 years ago, found an instant fan club (not surprising—it’s like cheese candy), and this newcomer deserves a warm welcome, too. Made with organic milk and matured for six to eight months in the Treur Kaas cellar, this Gouda-like beauty—christened Beppie—is as creamy as a caramel.
The Treur family got its start in the afffinage business in the mid 1950s, when young Evert Treur began delivering cheese to retail stores on his bike. Within a year he had a van, and a year later a warehouse. Today, Evert’s grandson is learning the business and the family oversees a large aging cellar devoted primarily to small-production Gouda. The Treurs don’t make cheese; they purchase young cheese from the makers and then mature and market it.
Wheels of fortune: Treur Kaas aging cellar
I served Beppie in a class recently and one guest told me that he was a little disapponted in it. It didn’t have the crunchy crystals and intense butterscotchy flavor of the aged Goudas he knew. That is true, and I think that’s partly why I like it so much and, in fact, prefer it to the more mature types.
Beppie is mellow but not candy-sweet and you don’t get tired of it after two bites. It’s not brittle like a one- or two-year-old Gouda; it’s firm yet smooth and creamy. It smells like pale caramel and lightly browned butter, and like many aged sheep cheeses, it glistens with fat. Let it melt on your tongue and note the wave of cream and the faintly piquant finish.
The importer/distributor is Food Matters Again, which has warehouses on the East and West Coasts. Ask your favorite retailer about ordering it. It is not widely available but the distributor assures me there is stock so stores can get it. In the meantime, here are the stores that have purchased Beppie in recent weeks. At some shops, you may see it labeled simply as Schapen Gouda (sheep Gouda).
East Coast
Bon Appétit (Hamden, CT)
Chantal’s Cheese Shop (Pittsburgh, PA)
Gary’s Wine & Marketplace (Wayne, NJ)
The Gourmet Shop (Columbia, SC)
Monger’s Palate (Brooklyn)
Second Mouse Cheese Shop (Pleasantville, NY)
West Coast
Good Earth (Fairfax and Mill Valley, CA)
Sonoma Cheese Factory (Sonoma, CA)