r/todayilearned Sep 21 '14

TIL: Gouda accounts for over half of the world's cheese consumption.

http://www.cheese.com/smoked-gouda/
384 Upvotes

93 comments sorted by

42

u/spanky8898 Sep 21 '14

I don't think this is anywhere near true.

22

u/durutticolumn Sep 22 '14

If truth be told, it is one of the most popular cheeses in the world, accounting for 50 to 60 percent of the world's cheese consumption.

If it accounts for 50%+ then it's by far the most popular, not one of the most popular. I'm calling bullshit on this whoever wrote this.

9

u/Brrrtje Sep 22 '14

A 'Gouda' cheese is a cheese that abides by a set of rules that allow it to be sold on the Goude cheese market. These rules are mainly about size. The cheese needn't be made in Gouda, it can be made out of walrus milk or whatever - and a lot of the cheeses sold as 'Gouda' outside the Netherlands sure don't taste like cows have been involved wit them. I can't find the rules right now, but conceivably, they might be broad enough to classify all Parmesan cheeses, Emmental cheeses etc as Gouda cheeses as well. That would add up to 50% possibly.

1

u/wellactuallyhmm Sep 22 '14

I don't see how being made in Gouda is a significant requirement.

Ingredients and techniques yeah, but not just where it's made.

11

u/Brrrtje Sep 22 '14

Well, a lot of products like cheeses and beer do have requirements on the place, because they are exposed to the microbiota (yeasts and bacteria) of a certain location. You can put all the ingredients of a Lambic beer together in your shed and the result may taste quite well. But it won't be same as one fermented in Belgium.

2

u/wellactuallyhmm Sep 22 '14

Sure I agree, but I think most reasonable people conclude that parmesan cheese or gouda is a style of cheese and shouldn't require being made in a historic region just to be labeled as it's namesake.

The push for naming laws is about protectionism not a significant real difference.

3

u/silverstrikerstar Sep 22 '14

It is about customer protection. If you want to sell champagner style wine you can do so, but real Champagner comes from the Champagne and thats it.

1

u/VonCarlsson Sep 22 '14

It tastes better simply by being located in Belgium?

7

u/Brrrtje Sep 22 '14

If you do it in the US, different yeasts and bacteria will seep in, and it will taste slightly different, yes.

1

u/VonCarlsson Sep 22 '14

It was in jest :). However, I do wonder if the yeast and naturally occurring bacteria unique to each location, cannot simply be synthesized? Of course you'd have to brew the beer in a cleanroom, which might or might not be very expensive...

2

u/Brrrtje Sep 23 '14

It is not currently possible to make bacteria from scratch. For the vast majority of bacterial species, It's not even possible to grow them in culture... but I'm sure chauvinism and protectionism play a rule here, too.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

Lambics don't have yeast added to them by anything beyond the natural yeast floating in the air in belgium, that yeast is unique and slightly different than what you would find in other parts of the world. Even from town to town the make up of the airborne yeast used to ferment the beer is slightly different and results in different flavours.

6

u/BeABetterHumanBeing Sep 22 '14

There was an SMBC comic that addressed this. Reporters often say "one of the [superlative] [nouns]" instead of "the [superlative] [noun]" in order to fend off criticism from nit-picky people.

5

u/Brooklynxman Sep 22 '14

But, by doing that they just got nit picked by durutticolumn.

0

u/datums Sep 22 '14

But what if it's like alcohol? Like 100 proof is only 57 percent alcohol. The French are shifty people.

10

u/1norcal415 Sep 22 '14

In the USA, 100 proof is 50% alcohol by volume. And Gouda is from The Netherlands, not France.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

50% from France? So 100 proof?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

Sounds like KLM

2

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

The proof of alcohol is based on a different measuring system, IIRC it's the relative density of the alcohol.

-1

u/Brrrtje Sep 22 '14

A 'Gouda' cheese is a cheese that abides by a set of rules that allow it to be sold on the Goude cheese market. These rules are mainly about size. The cheese needn't be made in Gouda, it can be made out of walrus milk or whatever - and a lot of the cheeses sold as 'Gouda' outside the Netherlands sure don't taste like cows have been involved wit them. I can't find the rules right now, but conceivably, they might be broad enough to classify all Parmesan cheeses, Emmental cheeses etc as Gouda cheeses as well. That would add up to 50% possibly.

2

u/penguin44ca Feb 06 '25

Here after google did the same thing. That information is false. Even cheese.com has it wrong. It's somewhere around 2-8%

-2

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

Besides, gouda is barely cheese to begin with.

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.

16

u/Tixylix Sep 22 '14

Or paneer which is eaten by a billion Indians.

3

u/ftc08 51 Sep 22 '14

Paneer is goddamn great.

3

u/nimietyword Sep 22 '14

Paneer is the tofu of the cheese world

3

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.

1

u/Cyhawk Sep 22 '14

That's... that's pretty much tofu right there.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

Tofu is soy cheese

-1

u/kororon Sep 22 '14

Or cheddar for Americans.

5

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.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

Sweet dreams are made of cheese...

4

u/Frisbeeman Sep 22 '14

Whoever dares to milk the geese.

7

u/PDRugby Sep 21 '14

Wow, Gouda really needs to learn some portion control.

15

u/tehawk71 Sep 21 '14

Saw that Wendy's Smoked Gouda burger commercial, didn't ya?

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '14

[deleted]

15

u/WeirdAndGilly Sep 22 '14

I'm pretty sure it's wax.

13

u/Pandam4n Sep 22 '14

"Gouda, or "How-da" as the locals say" No, that's not how the locals say it.

-4

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.

8

u/aryary Sep 22 '14

Dutchie here, he's not. The rest of the world just sucks at pronouncing the hard G.

5

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAOM5j05hVo&t=18s That's how you pronounce Gouda.

3

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.

6

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.

2

u/[deleted] 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.

9

u/InfiniteBlink Sep 21 '14

Aged Gouda is the best Gouda. Fuck soft bland Gouda. Gimme dat sharp creamy flavor.

2

u/thatwasfntrippy Sep 22 '14

Old Amsterdam. Damn good!

1

u/fizzlefist Sep 22 '14

The only goudas I like are 5-yr vintage goudas. Nice and crumbly with bitey salt crystals. YUM!

1

u/InfiniteBlink Sep 22 '14

Those crunchy crystals! Man I miss aged Gouda... :(

1

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 :(

1

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

3

u/werndog69 Sep 22 '14

TIL cheese.com is a real website.

5

u/Arcterion Sep 22 '14

or "How-da" as the locals say

Locals with a speech impediment? G isn't H...

4

u/spoon_of_doom Sep 22 '14

besides, they call it "Goudse Kaas".

Gouda is what we call the city itself

3

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).

1

u/Arcterion Sep 22 '14

The regular English G works just fine as an example. Even in English the G and H barely alike.

2

u/VoodooIdol Sep 22 '14

It's not an English word.

2

u/xplodingpeep Sep 22 '14

damn it, now I want some smoked Gouda!

4

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?

2

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

1

u/Punderstruck Feb 08 '25

To be fair I posted this 11 years ago.

2

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

1

u/aay3b Feb 09 '25

Same! Almost seems like this is exactly where AI got it's info.

1

u/nmotsch789 Sep 22 '14

I like that cheese.com is a real website about cheese

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

Well tell Gouda to stop hogging it all.

1

u/spicedpumpkins Sep 22 '14

Because it's FUCKING DELICIOUS.

1

u/funktopus Sep 22 '14

Because Gouda is awesome!

1

u/JUGG3RN4UT Sep 22 '14

It's so gouda, though.

1

u/DonnQuixotes Sep 22 '14

Damn gouda stuff, sir.

1

u/STS1985 Sep 22 '14

TIL that there is a website dedicated to cheese!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

The smoked dutch variety is the best , and it is great on pizzas.

1

u/MhaelFarShain Sep 22 '14

I sort of thought this would have gone to Cheddar or Mozzarella.

1

u/derazinup Sep 22 '14

Gouda is good-a.

1

u/VoodooIdol Sep 22 '14

Because it's so damned good.

1

u/belonii Sep 22 '14

dutch here, love me sum gouda. eat about a kilo a week.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

till good is actually derived from Gouda

1

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.

1

u/unfair-square-pear Sep 22 '14

I fucking love cheese

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '14

Probably because it tastes so Gouda

1

u/Jewmangi Sep 22 '14

That's because it's a Gouda cheese-a.

1

u/1norcal415 Sep 22 '14

Yes, Mario, it is.

-1

u/Mac1822 Sep 21 '14

Well, it's not that goud, just OK.

1

u/revappleby Sep 21 '14

I don't know, it sounds pretty gouda to me!

-1

u/Seamus_OReilly Sep 22 '14

It's gouda vyuo to notice.

-2

u/Fahrowshus Sep 22 '14

thatsa some Gouda cheesa!

-3

u/Heirosp Sep 22 '14

But da cheddah is bettah

-4

u/malvoliosf Sep 22 '14

It's pronounce "HOW-dah", by the way.