Cheeses of Gouda
A Dutch market town whose weigh house and summer cheese market gave its name to one of the world's most made cheeses.
Made, aged and sold here
Best time: April to August, the season of the summer market.
Gouda is a canal town in South Holland, between Rotterdam and Utrecht. Its name became that of a cheese because farmers brought their wheels here to be weighed and sold, and the right to hold a cheese market dates to the Middle Ages. The weigh house, built in 1668, still stands on the market square, where a summer cheese market is held for visitors.
Gouda cheese
Gouda is a cow's milk cheese whose curd is washed with warm water, which takes away some lactose and gives a sweet, mild flavour. It is pressed into round wheels with bulging sides, brined and coated. Young Gouda is supple and creamy; old Gouda, aged a year or more, is hard, deep gold and full of crunchy crystals, with a caramel taste.
Market and farms
In the weigh house the old scales are still on show, with a museum of cheese and crafts. In summer, farmers and traders strike deals with a ritual of hand slaps on the square, a show of the old trade. Around the town, in the polders of the Green Heart, farmers still make boerenkaas, farmhouse Gouda from raw milk.
A trail idea for Gouda
- Goudse Waag The 1668 weigh house and its cheese exhibition.
- Summer cheese market Watch the hand-slap trading on the square in season.
- Sint-Janskerk The long church famous for its stained glass windows.
- A cheese farm Taste raw-milk boerenkaas in the polders around the town.
Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Gouda, South Holland" on Wikipedia. Opening hours, markets, caves and tours change; check locally before travelling. If something is wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Friesian Clove: Takeaway, CC BY-SA 4.0, source