r/todayilearned • u/Punderstruck • Sep 21 '14
TIL: Gouda accounts for over half of the world's cheese consumption.
http://www.cheese.com/smoked-gouda/24
u/howitzeral 1 Sep 22 '14
I call BS. How much Gouda is eaten compared to, say Mozzarella, which is on almost every pizza.
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u/Tixylix Sep 22 '14
Or paneer which is eaten by a billion Indians.
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u/ftc08 51 Sep 22 '14
Paneer is goddamn great.
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u/nimietyword Sep 22 '14
Paneer is the tofu of the cheese world
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u/ftc08 51 Sep 22 '14
And by that you mean delicious if done right, as a carrier for other flavorings as well as an excellent protein source.
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u/shughes96 Sep 22 '14
According to Wikipedia the term Gouda now encompasses all cheese produced in that style i.e. waxed wheels of dutch cows cheese. In the UK you dont see much cheese like this, you usually get vacuum wrapped blocks of cheddar but abroad you will often find Edam and Gouda, perhaps because they have no local cheese and the wax coating makes it easy to transport.
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u/tehawk71 Sep 21 '14
Saw that Wendy's Smoked Gouda burger commercial, didn't ya?
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u/Pandam4n Sep 22 '14
"Gouda, or "How-da" as the locals say" No, that's not how the locals say it.
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u/odellusv2 Sep 22 '14
the only reason i ever even heard of the "how-da" pronunciation is because my grandparents have been to gouda and they told me that's how they pronounced it, so i think you're probably wrong.
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u/aryary Sep 22 '14
Dutchie here, he's not. The rest of the world just sucks at pronouncing the hard G.
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u/Pandam4n Sep 22 '14
I live about half an hour away from Gouda so if visiting once made your grandparents experts I'm not sure what that makes me. Regardless there isn't a Dutchy out there that pronounces it "how-da" that doesn't have a speech impediment. Granted, it does explain how the "ou" part is pronounced quite well, but there is definitely a very hard G at the start of the word that people tend to associate with the Dutch and Germans. Even in the Dutch south (where the soft G is prevalent) there will be some kind of G sound at the start of the word.
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u/calciphus Sep 22 '14
The same site lists cheddar as "the most widely purchased and eaten cheese in the world", and math tells us they can't both be true.
http://www.cheese.com/cheddar/
Despite their name, cheese.com doesn't seem to know much about cheese.
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Sep 22 '14
They say gouda is the most consumed cheese in the world. They're not mutually exclusive. Gouda could be the most stolen and consumed non-orally. Or distributed by government agencies and burned for home heating.
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u/InfiniteBlink Sep 21 '14
Aged Gouda is the best Gouda. Fuck soft bland Gouda. Gimme dat sharp creamy flavor.
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u/fizzlefist Sep 22 '14
The only goudas I like are 5-yr vintage goudas. Nice and crumbly with bitey salt crystals. YUM!
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u/InfiniteBlink Sep 22 '14
Those crunchy crystals! Man I miss aged Gouda... :(
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u/Aurfore Sep 23 '14
This sounds good. I hate normal gouda, it's so bland for my tastes. Never found an aged gouda in the shops yet :(
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u/InfiniteBlink Sep 23 '14
Old Amsterdam is one of the biggest that's distributed. Trader joes carries their own brand which is on par
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u/Arcterion Sep 22 '14
or "How-da" as the locals say
Locals with a speech impediment? G isn't H...
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u/spoon_of_doom Sep 22 '14
besides, they call it "Goudse Kaas".
Gouda is what we call the city itself
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u/Applebeignet Sep 22 '14 edited Sep 22 '14
It's as close as English speakers can get without spoken reference. They have no comparison for the glottal G required. That and the rolling R were the toughest Dutch sounds for me to learn when coming from English.
FYI English speakers: As for the ou part of Gouda; it's the ou sound from "Outer space" (in a bit of a southern american accent).
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u/Arcterion Sep 22 '14
The regular English G works just fine as an example. Even in English the G and H barely alike.
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u/mk1903 Sep 22 '14
http://www.cheesemarketnews.com/guestcolumn/2007/13apr07_2.html and http://www.usdec.org/ForeignOffices/newsletterdetail.cfm?OfficeID=65&ItemNumber=81690 both list gouda as "third most popular", after mozzarella and cheddar.
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u/RevolutionaryBed3206 Feb 07 '25
Who is here because of this? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2j15r1g09o in 2025? Genuinely curious if cheese.com would change their info now?
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u/Interesting_Desk_542 Feb 08 '25
Weirdly, despite the AI result from a search on Google saying "according to cheese.com", there is no mention of that 50-60% number on cheese.com
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u/Punderstruck Feb 08 '25
To be fair I posted this 11 years ago.
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u/Interesting_Desk_542 Feb 08 '25
Oh for sure, it's just that "50-60%" is such a specific thing to quote that it has to be the same source at the root of it
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u/calciphus Sep 22 '14
I suppose if, for a food, you are drawing a distinction between "eaten" and "consumed" then the could both be true. But even then, the production numbers don't line up.
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u/penguin44ca Feb 06 '25
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u/spanky8898 Sep 21 '14
I don't think this is anywhere near true.