Gjetost...

Gjetost...  Have you ever run into this stuff?  It's a Norwegian cheese, made partly or entirely of goat's milk.  The brand pictured (Ski Queen) is the one I've been familiar with since childhood.  My dad loved to try cheeses, and when we traveled with him on his landscaping or botanical trips, there was a good chance we'd be picking up some “stinky foot” cheese – something like a Roquefort, or Liederkranz, or something along those lines.  But every once in a while, he'd pick up some Ski Queen gjetost.  We kids really loved that stuff – it was slightly sweet, had an interesting texture (sort of like peanut butter), and was really different.  We liked it much better than Roquefort :)

One day when I was about ten years old, we had some gjetost for lunch – and shortly after that I was violently sick to my stomach.  Our bodies have evolved a very refined defense against foods that make us sick – once the association is made, the smell – or even the thought – of such a food may make us nauseous.  That's exactly what happened to me.  For 50 years, if I saw that cheese in a grocery store, I'd steer my shopping cart in a wide arc around it.

Just a few weeks ago I worked up the courage to try gjetost again, 50 years after getting sick upon eating it.  It was even better than I'd remembered – a delightful flavor and texture.  I've had it twice since, and there's a chunk of it in my refrigerator as I write.  Today I learned from a neighbor that the Ski Queen brand is a sort of “poor man’s version” of gjetost – it has a little goat's milk, but it's mostly cow's milk.  He told me about ekte geitost – the real deal, gjetost made from 100% goat's milk.  I just ordered some, and I can hardly wait to try it!