Geitost!

I feel obligated to offer a "gesundheit" after using Geitost as a title, but no one familiar with Geitost would ask for a blessing. They would ask for more. Geitost is an amazing Scandinavian goat's milk cheese.

Sunday started off innocently enough. My friend Lisa and I hiked through Duke Forest with my dog. We had lunch at a local Asian restaurant. We bought yarn, so I could teach her to knit.

Somewhere along the way, Lisa mentioned a favorite food from her Iowa upbringing. After elementary school she would go home with her buddy Nina. Nina's mother was Norwegian, a blond beauty who made terrific after-school snacks in her yellow, sun-filled bungalow. The typical after school goodie was a slice of dark bread slathered with butter and topped with a piece of Geitost (sometimes spelled Gjetost).

Lisa's description of this cheese made me rethink my afternoon. I had to try it. Immediately. We headed to our local gourmet grocery and bought of block of Geitost, along with a package of imported pumpernickel — one of those perfectly square, dark brown slices of bread found in a specialty market or the international food aisle of your local grocery.

At home, the knitting needles came out and I (tried) to teach Lisa to cast on and knit. Then it was snack time. Geitost and butter on pumpernickel for everyone! And, wow, was it good. Geitost is a rich, creamy, dark brown cheese (alarmingly brown) with a remarkable caramel flavor. It's borderline sweet, but not off-putting. The dark bread provided great contrast to the cheese, and the butter served as a nice neutral buffer with a soft, creamy texture.

Now we just need to learn how to make the stuff. A brief bit of Internet research reveals that we need a lot of goat's milk whey (the by-product of cheese production) and a lot of spare time. It takes about 6 hours of stand-by-the-pot time for the milk sugars to caramelize. This will be Lisa's job, as she works from home. Wish us luck.


Note: If you can't find imported pumpernickel, use rye bread or rye flatbread.