Product Review: Tine Jarlsberg Cheese

Jarlsberg is a Norwegian cheese that first began to be developed in the counties of Jarlsberg (surprise!) and Laurvig after coming into contact with Emmental (Swiss) cheese in the mid 1800s. Then in 1956 researchers at the Agricultural University of Norway got a hold of the recipe and adapted it to modern cheese making techniques.[1] Like Emmental, Jarlsberg uses the bacterium Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii to produce the characteristic holes (or 'eyes') in the cheese, but also contains cultures of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis [2], and Leuconostoc mesenteroides.

My verdict: Given its similarity to Emmental, I treated it accordingly by eating it on a sandwich besides eating it with crackers. I couldn't distinguish any difference between Jarlsberg and Emmental. Thus I was quite surprised to learn that Jarlsberg is touted as the most-purchased specialty cheese in the U.S.[3] My best guess is that it's milder since most places market it as a Baby Swiss. The cheese makers claim that Jarlsberg is a cross between Gouda and Emmental [4], but I couldn't detect any of the Gouda flavor.

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Notes:

[1] See http://www.jarlsberg.com/products/jarlsberg.

[2] For more information about Lactococcus lactis, see my post about the same.

[3] See http://www.jarlsbergusa.com/our-cheeses/.

[4] See http://www.umb.no/statisk/ilp/instituttstyre/jarlsbergosten_v7.pdf. (Note that it's a .pdf.)