🧀 Leerdammer

Leerdammer is a Dutch brand of cheese with holes. According to the brand, it was created in 1974 by Cees Boterkopper, the owner of a small local dairy, and Baastian Baars, who managed a cheesemaking business in a nearby town. It is named after the town of Leerdam, where Boterkopper's dairy stood.

The idea was to combine the mild taste of Gouda with the characteristic holes of Emmental. The brand says it cultivates its own lactic ferments: one creates the holes and the nutty flavour and has not changed since the 1970s, the other makes the taste more pronounced with longer maturation. After pressing, the cheeses stay in a brine bath for more than two days; after maturation the wheels are coated in wax. The milk is curdled with a microbial coagulating enzyme instead of animal rennet, which the brand says makes the cheese suitable for vegetarians.

Leerdammer is made by Royal Lactalis Leerdammer, part of the Lactalis group, at Schoonrewoerd, Dalfsen and Wageningen in the Netherlands. The Dutch site lists Leerdammer Original, Lightlife (a lighter variant), Jong Belegen Caractère (longer ripened, fuller taste) and Extra Mild, as slices and wheels. Lactalis describes the cheese as creamy, mild and nutty with a hint of sweetness.