What Do You Eat With Brunost?
Every culture will have its own set of unique food items that either impress or disgust visitors when they try it upon visiting. Norway is no different and offers an assortment of delicious Norwegian food that is unlike anything that can be found anywhere else in the world. Some of the more common examples include lutefisk and pinnekjøtt.
Photo: Thea Hermansen
However, one dish seems to have gained notoriety above all else, which is something that is known as brunost, or brown cheese. Most people who have never been on any Norwegian tours or are not of Norwegian descent will never have tried, or even heard of, brunost.
What Is Brunost?
Brunost is essentially a kind of food that is derived from the same byproducts as goat cheese. It then goes through a unique series of processes and ends up being produced as a tan-coloured cheese that is not actually cheese. It involves the process of taking the whey that is present in goat milk and boiling it until the sugars within the milk reach a point where they become caramelized. Afterwards, the resulting product is removed from the heat and left to cool and harden. Once it has reached its ideal amount of solidity, which is approximately as soft as average cheese, it is ready to be eaten.
Although brunost really has no direct comparison to any other food product out there, that hasn’t stopped people from trying to compare it. One of the most frequent comparisons is to Marmite, a British food spread made of yeast. This comparison isn’t made for the resemblance of taste to one another, but is rather due to the fact that both are typically eaten earlier in the day, cause intense reactions in the people who eat them, and are created by using by-products rather than raw materials.
Photo: Cabday/Foap/Visitnorway.com
How to Eat Brunost
As previously mentioned, brunost tends to be something that is reserved for breakfast or lunch. It is generally sliced directly from the block into thin pieces and then placed on top of various items such as bread or waffles. However, that is not the only way in which native Norwegians tend to eat their brunost.
Another very popular method of consuming brunost includes making it into a fondue. By replacing the standard cheese fondue with a much more interesting brunost fondue, you can provide excitement to an otherwise fairly plain dish. When consumed in fondue form, brunost is often paired with akvavit to really help complete the meal.
It can even be served alongside another classic Norwegian staple food, which is cod. By serving up some slices of brunost beside a beautifully cooked piece of cod or even melting it on top of the cod, you can create a meal that is sure to be a hit with both locals and tourists.
We suggest traveling to Norway on one of our tours to find out if you like or dislike like brunost! While you are here, remember to check out our collection of exciting Norwegian Food Tours.