Edam
Beginner
🧀 Photo slot
The Dutch cheese known by its red wax ball. Some fat is taken out, which leaves it plain and springy.
TasteVery mild and plain. Young, it offers a gentle milky sweetness with a trace of nuts and does not assert itself. With age the salt and the savoury side sharpen and the finish gets a little keener. Set it beside gouda and the difference is clear: where gouda heads for caramel, edam stays plain and simply gets saltier.
TextureSpringy — press it and it comes back. Made from milk with some fat removed, it also holds less water than gouda, so it is firmer and slices thin without tearing, which suits a sandwich. Aged longer it turns hard and breaks a little as you cut.
Similar cheeses
How it differsGouda is the one it gets confused with, and the milk is what separates them: gouda uses whole milk, edam milk with some fat removed. That makes edam plainer and springier, and it never melts as smoothly as gouda. The shapes differ too — edam is a ball flattened at both ends, gouda a flat wheel. Cheddar parts from it on acidity, havarti on softness.
Pairing
🍷 WineLight red, white
🥂 DrinkBeer
🍽️ FoodApple, pear, crackers, ham
How to enjoy
Slice it thin for a sandwich or lay it on a cracker as it is. The modest salt suits fruit, and pear or apple alongside is the Dutch habit. It will melt, though not as smoothly as gouda, so it does better on toast than in a gratin that has to run.
What to look for
The wax colour tells you something: red is the colour used for export, and wheels aged beyond seventeen weeks get black wax. Black means drier, saltier and more aromatic. And the word edam is not protected, so it may be made anywhere — if you want Dutch, look for 'Edam Holland' (PGI) or 'Noord-Hollandse Edammer' (PDO) on the label.
Storage
Wrap in parchment, put it in a lidded box and keep it in the crisper drawer. A whole waxed ball keeps far longer, but once cut, finish it within two weeks. The wax itself is not eaten.
⏳ Aging4 weeks (young) to over a year
Good to know
The name comes from Edam, a port town north of Amsterdam, and the cheese really did leave the country through that harbour. Firm and slow to spoil, it survived months at sea — and the wax was originally there to help it do so. Those individually wrapped red-wax snack cheeses are that same method shrunk down.