Remember last year we went to Türkiye and came back to write the entire post about leblebi - a Turkish snack that impressed us so much. On our trip to Norway this summer, something similar happened. And we are here to tell you about the most iconic Norwegian food item and a new word in our vocabulary - brunost!
Brunost (translated from Norwegian as “brown cheese”) is a big deal in Norway. We learned this on our first day in the country when we went on a guided city tour in Bergen. After making introductory remarks about the history of Norway and sprinkling a couple of jokes about neighboring Sweden, a tour guide casually pulled out of his backpack a block of brown cheese and started slicing it with a special knife for the people on the tour. The guide was very proud of this Norwegian delicacy and wanted to make sure everyone tried it before leaving the country. We loved brunost at our first bite and after the tour concluded headed to a local grocery store to buy more of it.
It is called brown cheese for its color. For the pedantic people reading this blog, yes, you are correct. Brunost is not technically a cheese as its key ingredient is whey - a byproduct of cheese making and something that is left after cheese is removed from milk. But who cares about the technicalities? By boiling down whey and cream, the Norwegians unlocked this gooey, brown substance that is so tasty and rich.
We ate brunost almost every day and could not get enough of its sweet, caramel taste. Our favorite way was by putting a slice or two on top of flatbrød, a type of Norwegian crispy bread, or by simply eating slice after slice. There are different types of brown cheese (cow cheese, cow cheese mixed with goat cheese, and goat cheese), and we tried them all. In the idyllic town of Undredal, known for its goat cheese, we even went for a cheese tasting at a local restaurant and tried various types of goat cheese, including a 100% brown goat cheese that had a strong and pungent taste. Brunost is traditionally served on bread, crackers, or waffles, sometimes accompanied by butter, sour cream, or jam and we made sure to try it every way possible.
Initially, we were buying small packages of brunost in local grocery stores containing several sliced pieces per package. But after spending about a week in the country, we started to do what the Norwegians do - we purchased a special cheese knife (a Norwegian invention) and carried a block of brunost with us, like that tour guide in Bergen. Having a proper cheese knife is essential as you must slice it very thin. If you use a regular knife, the slices would be too thick, and some people compared chewing thick slices to trying to chew a piece of clay. It is an art to make a proper slice, and the Norwegians are not only born with the skis on their feet but also with the skill how to slice brunost properly. I am also pretty sure that cutting brunost with a regular knife is a deportable offense in Norway. By the end of the trip, Julia became an expert in handling a cheese knife. As a wizard, she would masterfully whip out a cheese block out of a backpack and start slicing it left and right. Be it at the top of the mountain or the airport lounge, the tasty cheese was always near and ready to be devoured.
We loved brunost so much and were eager to eat it every day to the point that we had to force ourselves to take breaks from it to allow us to buy and try other Norwegian cheeses, which are also super delicious. Before visiting Norway, we were not even aware of the existence of brunost, and now could not even fathom go a day without it. Sitting on the bank of a fjord or hiking a trail and munching on this sweet brown delicacy, we over and over again wondered why the rest of the world had not found out about it.
On the last day in Bergen, as we were getting ready to say goodbye to the beautiful country of fjords and Vikings, we had one task to do. Right before leaving for the airport, we stopped at a grocery store and bought four blocks of brunost to take home. And I must tell you that once those four blocks are finished (and we are getting there soon), we will be on the hunt for more in the artisanal cheese shops in the Chicagoland area and the U.S. We just hope that the cheese that we find in the States measures up and has that rich, caramel taste that will forever be associated for us with Norway.
