Brunost

Brunost, brown cheese, is one of the most Norwegian tastes there is: a dense, fudgy, caramel-coloured cheese made by boiling down whey until its milk sugars caramelise. Sliced wafer-thin with a cheese slicer, itself a Norwegian invention, over waffles, bread or crispbread, it is sweet, savoury and beloved from childhood.

History

Boiling whey down into a brown spread is old in Scandinavia - at least 2,500 years; a find in central Jutland in 2016 identified cheese residue on pottery from around 650 BC, possibly of a similar kind. The firm, rich brunost of today is credited to Anne Hov, a milkmaid in Gudbrandsdalen, at a time when the valley was struggling with falling prices for grain and butter: at the Valseter mountain farm near Gålå in 1863 she added cream to the whey and boiled it down further, making what she called feitost, "fat cheese". Later she added goat's milk, and the local trader Ole Kongsli began selling it in Christiania as Gudbrandsdalsost, so successfully that it helped pull the valley out of recession. In 1933, at 87, Hov received the King's Medal of Merit (Wikipedia, Brunost).

What's there

• The brown block - the dense caramel-coloured whey cheese.
• The cheese slicer - the Norwegian tool for shaving it thin.
• On waffles - the classic pairing with heart-shaped Norwegian waffles.
• Gudbrandsdalsost - the popular version blending cow and goat whey.

When to go

Year-round; it is a shop-shelf and cafe staple, so any time. Try it thin on a warm waffle for the classic experience before judging.

Things to know

The sweet, caramel taste on a cheese surprises and divides visitors, so try a little before committing. It is dense and rich, best in thin slices rather than chunks. It makes a genuinely Norwegian, long-keeping souvenir, for those it wins over.

Nearby

Any cafe serves it on waffles; the food halls and markets sell blocks to take home.