Cut off a piece of gouda and you have a hunk of dairy in pie slice form. Add some whipped cream and the illusion is complete. “Why are most hard cheeses made in wheel shape,” asks Jan Coenen. “That’s inconvenient,” he emails. “A quadrangular shape would also save a lot of space during storage and transport and would therefore be more interesting economically and ecologically, I think.”
Coenen has a point there. It is difficult to store them efficiently. This is especially disadvantageous in a room where every centimeter counts, such as in a refrigerator or on a cheese board.
The fact that you see this shape so often is partly due to tradition, says dairy expert Chak Ming To from Ghent University. “You do see that some manufacturers are abandoning the old habits. Traditional cheddar is cylindrical, but is now widely produced in large blocks.”
Technologically speaking, it is not always possible to change the design. Rounds also offer advantages, such as a more even composition of the end product. “With block cheeses, the corners absorb more salt during brining, so the corners dry out faster and protective wax coatings do not stick as well.”
Dairy researcher Kasper Hettinga from the University of Wageningen agrees with To. Nowadays there are solutions for certain challenges in the production process and cheese makers are sometimes switching to rectangles, he says. “With modern standardized production and ripening techniques, you can also properly brine, dry and ripen square cheeses. Although things always go a little better with round cheeses.”
The fact that traditionally round cheeses were often made was not only due to more favorable ripening. “Cheese pressing is better in round molds, because these shapes absorb the pressing pressure more evenly,” Hettinga continues. “And after pressing, a natural cheese rind forms, which is firmer if there are no corners. The cheeses were also easier to transport. You could roll them. This was not an unnecessary luxury, especially with very large specimens, such as Parmesan or Emmental.”
Nowadays, Emmentaler is often made square, says food chemist Bruno De Meulenaer from Ghent University. “There are some examples of beam-shaped cheeses. Especially the products that are further industrially processed are initially rectangular. This form remains limited for the consumer market. Cheese is so steeped in tradition that it is difficult to change it.”
That’s what To says too. “The shape reflects the traditional use of cheese buckets by artisan makers, or of cheesecloth to separate curds and whey. People love that. Cheese wheels have an aesthetic appeal to consumers.”
