Gamalost

Gamalost, old cheese, is made from soured skimmed milk without rennet, the curd heated, pressed, and then ripened with mould in a warm humid room where it is rubbed and turned by hand over weeks, developing a brown rind and a dense, grainy, sharp interior. It contains almost no fat, which made it valuable food when milk fat was needed for butter, and it was eaten across rural Norway into the twentieth century. Now it is made commercially in only one place, at Vik on the Sognefjord, and consumption has fallen to a fraction of what it was. Vik holds a gamalost festival in June, and the dairy receives visitors. The smell is strong and the flavour sharp and ammoniacal.

Highlights

• The mould ripening - cheeses turned and rubbed by hand during maturing.
• The Vik dairy - the only commercial producer left, open to visitors.
• The June festival - a village celebration of the cheese.
• The fat-free method - a cheese made from skimmed milk without rennet.

When to go

Year-round to buy, with the dairy at Vik receiving visitors in the summer season; the festival falls in June. The cheese keeps well and is sold in supermarkets across the country.

Things to know

The smell and taste are strong, sharp and ammoniacal, and the cheese divides opinion sharply even among Norwegians. It is dry and crumbly rather than creamy. Production is small and the tradition is genuinely at risk.

Nearby

Hopperstad stave church is in Vik; the Sognefjord ferries connect to Balestrand and Vangsnes.