Prima Donna is a Dutch parmesan-style cheese made from pasteurized or raw cow's milk. Underneath the natural rind, the texture is firm, crystalline, grainy, and crumbly. The flavors are full, sweet, and nutty. This cheese is aged until it reaches the pinnacle of flavor, meaning that it's not aged for a set period of time, but until it develops a particular flavor profile.
Those stages are classified as fino, maturo, forte, and leggero. It's recommended to pair Prima Donna with Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah, or Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Leerdammer is a Dutch cheese made from cow's milk. It was invented by Cees Boterkooper and Bastiaan Baars in 1977 in Schoonrewoerd, but nowadays the production takes place in Leerdam, hence the name. The cheese has a smooth, springy, open, and creamy texture, while the flavors are mild, sweet, and nutty.
It's often described as a cross between Gouda and Emmental. Leerdammer is traditionally aged from 3 to 12 months. It is recommended to use it in sandwiches, salads, and various cooked dishes.
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Edam Holland is a semi-hard cheese that ages well and does not spoil. Its flavor is mild, sweet to piquant, depending on its maturity, while its rubbery texture becomes firmer and tighter as it ages. It must be made in Holland in accordance with strict guidelines and a unique identification number imprinted on the wax.
The cheese is naturally matured, just as Gouda Holland, and it's made from cows' milk from Dutch farms, providing an excellent source of calcium. The peculiarly-shaped Edam slices easily, which makes it great for sandwiches, sauces and soups.
Hollandse geitenkaas is a semi-hard white cheese prepared using pasteurized cream or whole, semi-skimmed or skimmed milk from Dutch White Goats or Dutch White cross-breeds exclusively. Its taste is soft, mild and clean, with fat content between 50% and 60%.
The mild flavor is developed after a minimum of four weeks of ripening. It can be left to ripen in the air, where it develops a dry rind, or it can be foil-ripened, preserving the mild flavors of young goat's cheese. As most goat cheeses, it goes well with chilled white wines and dry rosé wines.
Noord-Hollandse Edammer is a soft, spherical cheese, with a flat top and bottom, made from cow's milk obtained exclusively from the pastures of North Holland, which gives it its unique taste. Its distinctive characteristics include a low salt content (its saltiness is significantly lower than that of other varieties of Edam cheese), high production quality, and a red, waxy outer coating.
It comes from the town of Edam in North Holland, where it's prepared following the instructions from a traditional recipe and has a PDO certificate. As it ages, Noord-Hollandse Edammer becomes firmer. The cheese has been produced on farms since the Middle Ages, which is evident from the Edam cheese presses that are displayed in numerous museums in North Holland.
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Vlaskaas is a traditional cheese made from cow's milk. It's aged for around 5 months, with variations. The texture is semi-soft and buttery, with some crunchy protein crystals here and there, while the flavors are sweet, milky, and nutty, with a touch of sharpness and hints of almonds.
In the past, the cheese was made only once a year during the flax harvest festival, when people used to eat it it on thick slices of bread, but nowadays it's available throughout the year. It's recommended to serve Vlaskaas with walnuts, salami, fresh figs, and apples.
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Also known as Boeren Leidenkaas, this traditional semi-hard farm cheese from the Gouda family is produced in the wider Leiden area of South Holland. One of the three most famous cheeses of Holland, Boeren-Leidse met Sleutels is infused with cumin seeds, and quite aromatic, while its flavor ranges from fruity to spicy.
In the words of the jury at the Dutch Artisanal Contest 2010, where this cheese won the main award: 'The cheese has a taste that fills your mouth completely, is pleasantly piquant with lavender and ends with walnut with the bitterness of an almond'.
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “7 Worst Rated Dutch Cheeses” list until April 19, 2025, 1,814 ratings were recorded, of which 1,567 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.
Everything I read says Leerdam.er is the worst cheese. I am here to say this is one of the best I have ever had. Totally awesome.