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motodraconisUsually I take the piss out of Norwegian food. Either it's bland as fuck, is 100% pure sugar and chemicals or actively toxic, but for once, here is something amazing and delicious, completely organic and natural (and totally Norwegian) that I was able to sample at the work conference last week.
"A brown cheese out of the ordinary, must be experienced!" Website.
It's really good! Just the right balance of alcohol, herbs, and pure creamy fat. A fantastic texture and more like a (cheesecake) truffle than a cheese.
Needless to say, most of the natives trying it at the seminar thought it was horrible (that's not brunost!) but I wanted to get hold of more, but having never seen it for sale, I feared it would be difficult to get hold of. And sure enough, you have to go to a remote Local Shop in the middle of nowhere to get it. And too be frank...
...it does look a little bit scary.
So I asked one of the waitresses at the hotel if I could take some home. They disappeared into the kitchen where some sort of complex discussion occurred. Then they emerged with a whole cheese for me (which I did have to pay for at reception!) But yay, I have Huldreost, and this is no easy thing. Do you have any idea how incredibly rare this cheese is? Like the sacred cloudberry, which only grows in the Nordics, cannot be farmed or cultivated and is unknown outside of the Nordic region, Hudreost can only be made in Norway, as it requires milk from an elusive and incredibly rare wild creature found only in Scandinavia.
The Huldra.
Source.
Harvesting the milk must be done in the middle of winter, and is traditionally the task of "Melkergutter" (Milking Boys.) These young men must ski deep into the forest. Huldra cannot be domesticated, being completely wild, and the melkergutter try to coax the huldras out with offerings of large bottles of aquavit. If the offering is accepted, the huldra will drink the aquavit, and allow the melkergutt to milk her.
Needless to say, this is a delicate and often dangerous task, with a high mortality rate. One in seven Norwegian Melkergutter are killed by huldra, for such infractions as offering poor quality aquavit, not being handsome or charming enough (the latter a tricky skill for Norwegians) not properly warming their hands first or flouting the V2 rule.
Modern day milking boys tend to be evasive about their activities, and like the harvesting of cloudberries, the exact location and habitats of benign huldra are a closely guarded secret. However, I have managed to find some vintage photos of melkergutter.
Odd Bødd Oddbøddsen and his brother Knut Jøbb.
Ludvig Offhånd, Reginald "Poncy" Ponsonby-Whitherington and Sandi "Sølvtunge" Toksvigsdottir.
Poncy was the only known non-Norwegian melkergutt. An Englishman, it is said what he lacked in skiing skills he made up for in panache. Alas, his milking career was brought to an early close when it was discovered that he had been feeding huldra whisky instead of aquavit, and in the ensuing scandal he was run out of Oppland county by enraged brown-cheese makers.
Of course, since I have become enamoured of Huldreost, it was suggested to me that I should volunteer to try being a melkergutt myself. But I fear I am not the correct gender for the task, and don't really fancy trying my hand at milking male huldra.* (That and I'm shit at skiing.) By tradition, melkergutter are always young handsome men, as huldra are known to be extremely fussy about their food. Having said that, Sandi "silvertongue" Toksvigsdottir is the only known female melker, and was said to be extremely good at her job, for reasons that can only be speculated about.
If you can get hold of this cheese, I can recommend it. It is not cheap, but very special indeed. Remember, many Norwegians have died for this ancient and little known tradition!
* Known as huldrekall and even rarer than the females of the species.
"A brown cheese out of the ordinary, must be experienced!" Website.
It's really good! Just the right balance of alcohol, herbs, and pure creamy fat. A fantastic texture and more like a (cheesecake) truffle than a cheese.
Needless to say, most of the natives trying it at the seminar thought it was horrible (that's not brunost!) but I wanted to get hold of more, but having never seen it for sale, I feared it would be difficult to get hold of. And sure enough, you have to go to a remote Local Shop in the middle of nowhere to get it. And too be frank...
...it does look a little bit scary.
So I asked one of the waitresses at the hotel if I could take some home. They disappeared into the kitchen where some sort of complex discussion occurred. Then they emerged with a whole cheese for me (which I did have to pay for at reception!) But yay, I have Huldreost, and this is no easy thing. Do you have any idea how incredibly rare this cheese is? Like the sacred cloudberry, which only grows in the Nordics, cannot be farmed or cultivated and is unknown outside of the Nordic region, Hudreost can only be made in Norway, as it requires milk from an elusive and incredibly rare wild creature found only in Scandinavia.
The Huldra.
Source.
Harvesting the milk must be done in the middle of winter, and is traditionally the task of "Melkergutter" (Milking Boys.) These young men must ski deep into the forest. Huldra cannot be domesticated, being completely wild, and the melkergutter try to coax the huldras out with offerings of large bottles of aquavit. If the offering is accepted, the huldra will drink the aquavit, and allow the melkergutt to milk her.
Needless to say, this is a delicate and often dangerous task, with a high mortality rate. One in seven Norwegian Melkergutter are killed by huldra, for such infractions as offering poor quality aquavit, not being handsome or charming enough (the latter a tricky skill for Norwegians) not properly warming their hands first or flouting the V2 rule.
Modern day milking boys tend to be evasive about their activities, and like the harvesting of cloudberries, the exact location and habitats of benign huldra are a closely guarded secret. However, I have managed to find some vintage photos of melkergutter.
Odd Bødd Oddbøddsen and his brother Knut Jøbb.
Ludvig Offhånd, Reginald "Poncy" Ponsonby-Whitherington and Sandi "Sølvtunge" Toksvigsdottir.
Poncy was the only known non-Norwegian melkergutt. An Englishman, it is said what he lacked in skiing skills he made up for in panache. Alas, his milking career was brought to an early close when it was discovered that he had been feeding huldra whisky instead of aquavit, and in the ensuing scandal he was run out of Oppland county by enraged brown-cheese makers.
Of course, since I have become enamoured of Huldreost, it was suggested to me that I should volunteer to try being a melkergutt myself. But I fear I am not the correct gender for the task, and don't really fancy trying my hand at milking male huldra.* (That and I'm shit at skiing.) By tradition, melkergutter are always young handsome men, as huldra are known to be extremely fussy about their food. Having said that, Sandi "silvertongue" Toksvigsdottir is the only known female melker, and was said to be extremely good at her job, for reasons that can only be speculated about.
If you can get hold of this cheese, I can recommend it. It is not cheap, but very special indeed. Remember, many Norwegians have died for this ancient and little known tradition!
* Known as huldrekall and even rarer than the females of the species.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-17 06:16 pm (UTC)As long as you don't touch the precious snow globes, you should be safe in the Local Shop.
That cheese looks super weird! How does it get the brown colour?