This cheese board show-stopper, Basiron, is a Gouda-style cheese made in Holland. It gets its harvest-red color from the addition of red tomatoes, and its exciting flavor from the addition of basil (pesto) and garlic. This is a cheese for basil lovers, trumpeting its healthy flavoring of basil with softer notes of tomato. The Gouda-style cheese is rich and creamy. Pasteurized cow’s milk and vegetarian rennet are used. It is aged from five to six weeks for a firm, yet youthful texture. The cheesemaker, Veldhuyzen Kaas, also makes an emerald-green version without the tomatoes called Basiron Pesto and a lighter-green Basiron Wasabi which can be presented as “green cheese from the moon.” Think ahead to a red and green cheese plate for Christmas! Basiron is so popular, the company makes thirteen different flavors, not all of which are available in the U.S. One which is, is the bright green pesto variety, perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.

The longer a Gouda ages, the more golden-brown the paste becomes. This heroic Gouda, aged for a full five years, has intense and complex flavors. It’s made from pasteurized cow’s milk and aged to perfection. As the importer says, it has nuances other cheeses only dream of.

One of those nuances are the crunchy calcium lactate crystals, which precipitate from the lactic acid as certain cheeses age. Call them “creepy crunchies” for Halloween.

Learn all about Gouda, the culinary prize of Holland.

 

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