Guten Morgen Cheesy1’s,

Today I write about Wilma Edelharzer Handkase which is a soured milk cheese and is beyond my cheese tastes in all fairness. When I recently talked to the W.I Boldre a lady who shops in the Branch very kindly bought some of this cheese for me to try. Now I know that I may have done the cheese some injustice by having plain but I just can’t get my tastebuds around the sharpness and the plastic texture. It is extremely bitter like a lemon owing to the soured milk and there is no forgiveness via creaminess either. The texture is similar to a jelly cube and has a rubbery mouth feel. I can imagine this being served and eaten traditionally in Germany and it does conjure up Bavarian imagery. My German Cheese Assistant Amy Wheeler very kindly provided a translation for a better understanding of the cheese “Handkäse means hand made cheese and Edelharzer is a delicatessen/creamery from the harz mountains which is most probably where the milk is from. The english name for this cheese is harz cheese, and Wilma is the German brand.” It is segmented into 4 and is made that way so that it is easy to serve and eat, and the name & size of the cheese is traditionally hand molded into a round loaf. It spends some of its life in a ripening room for two days at a temperature of 25 to 28 ° C and 80 percent humidity. The rind is a yellowish color and the segments are sprayed with brine and packed.  All in all this is a very traditional german cheese which has its appeal and is best eaten with a cider/ beer or on a dark German bread, but an accompaniment is definitely required to appreciate.

Thank you for bring in a new cheese for me to try and I wish you all a lovely day.

The Cheesy1