My husband has taken up bread baking recently, so for his birthday, I enrolled him in a two-day artisan-bread class. Clever, no? He does the work and I reap the benefits.
When he came home from bread school with his first loaf of rye, I had a sudden craving for Leiden. This cumin-scented Dutch cheese rarely tempts me at the store because I don't typically appreciate cheese with spices. But Doug's aromatic bread evoked a little still life for me: a slice of rye, a chunk of Leiden, some pickled onions, a malty beer.
Leiden resembles Gouda, Holland's best-known cheese. The recipe and format are similar, although Gouda is higher in fat.
Leiden production begins with skimmed milk, and the finished product rarely surpasses 40 percent fat, whereas Gouda, by Dutch law, must contain a minimum of 48 percent fat. (That's fat in the dry matter, the cheese minus its water.) And although Gouda may have spices added, Leiden always does.
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