Named after its place of origin, Samsø is a Danish semi-hard cheese made from pasteurized cow’s milk. The cheese was invented in the early 19th century. Its texture is supple and elastic, while the body is filled with irregular eyes.
The flavors are gentle, nutty, sour, and sweet. Although it was produced in circular shape with waxy rind in the past, nowadays almost every Samsø is made rindless in rectangular blocks. The cheese melts well, making it ideal for gratins, pizza, or sandwiches.
Named after the eponymous village located in East Flanders, Nazareth is a Belgian hard cheese made from cow’s milk. It is recognizable by its dark brown rind. The cheese has a subtle, mild flavor with nutty hints. It can be either grated or melted, and it is recommended to use it with pasta dishes, stews, or in grilled cheese sandwiches.
Sage Derby is one of England's oldest cheeses, produced in the region of Derbyshire. The cheese is made with cow's milk, and it's characterized by its unusual marbled visual appearance, a result of infusion with sage, which also gives the cheese a subtle herbaceous flavor.
However, spinach, marigold, and parsley can also be used instead of sage, but the practice is not that common. Sage Derby is aged for 1 to 3 months, and due to its good melting properties, it pairs with vegetables, fresh fruit, rye bread, and poultry.
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.
Bel Paese is an Italian cheese originating from Lombardy. The cheese is made from cow's milk and has a pale yellow color. Its aroma is pleasant and milky, while the flavors are mild, buttery, and slightly sweet, often compared with mozzarella.
Bel Paese matures from 6 to 8 weeks, and it is then consumed, usually sliced and served with fruits such as pears, figs, and apples. It melts well, so it's also often used on pizza or in casseroles. The authentic Bel Paese can be easily identified by a map of Italy and a picture of Antonio Stoppani depicted on the label (in America, there is a map of the USA on the label).
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Jarlsberg is a Norwegian cheese made with cow's milk. It has a semi-soft texture, while the flavors are mild, buttery, and slightly nutty. The cheese was invented by Anders Larsen Bakke in the village of Vale, not far away from Oslo. Jarlsberg has characteristical irregular holes dispersed throughout its body, which is why it's often marketed as a Swiss cheese.
The cheese melts exceptionally well, and as a result it is used in fondues, quiches, and sandwiches. It is recommended to pair Jarlsberg with a glass of Merlot.
Pair with
Vesterhavsost is a Danish semi-hard cheese made from pasteurized cow’s milk. It is sometimes called the Danish version of Gouda or North Sea cheese, referring to the fact that it is produced from the milk of West Jutlandic dairy cows and that it matures in the salty North Sea air for 26 weeks.
As a result, it has a smooth, slightly sweet body with hints of saltiness and nuttiness. It is recommended to consume it thinly sliced on its own or use it as the key ingredient in grilled cheese sandwiches.
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 “10 Worst Rated European Waxed Rind Cheeses” list until April 19, 2025, 3,228 ratings were recorded, of which 2,689 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.