Edam

Edam is a semi-hard cheese, originally from Holland, with a mild, creamy flavour, and which is made in large spheres up to a foot in diameter, which are traditionally coated with a red wax. This is non-toxic but not strictly edible, so if you get a proper edam with its red waxy rind, don't try to eat that bit!

Edam can be used in much the same way as another famous semi-hard Dutch cheese, gouda, meaning that it's ideal in sandwiches or eaten on its own. It turns quite stringy when melted so isn't so good for using in cookery, except perhaps as a slightly different topping on pizza or possibly burgers.

E"dam (?), n., or Edam cheese.

A Dutch pressed cheese of yellow color and fine flavor, made in balls weighing three or four pounds, and usually colored crimson outside; -- so called from the village of Edam, near Amsterdam. Also, cheese of the same type, wherever made.

 

© Webster 1913