Dairy
Young Gouda
Young Gouda (jong) is short-aged Dutch cow’s-milk cheese, typically matured only a few weeks to about two months. The paste stays pale, elastic, and high in moisture, with a mild, milky-sweet flavour and little of the caramel or crystal character of older wheels. It is the everyday sandwich and melting style of the Gouda family—sliced for bread, cubed for snacks, or used where stretch and mildness matter more than depth of flavour.
Also known as: Jong
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Characteristics
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History
Short-kept washed-curd wheels were ordinary farm and town cheese before long export ageing became a specialty trade.
Creamery production standardised mild young Gouda for domestic tables and early industrial sandwich cheese.
Label term “jong” became a retail shorthand for soft, mild Gouda distinct from belegen and oud.
Young Gouda remained the volume style worldwide, while artisan makers focused longer ageing on separate lines.