Maasdam is a Dutch cow's-milk cheese with large eyes and a sweet, nutty taste. It was created in the late twentieth century as a faster, milder answer to Swiss Emmental.
It slices and it melts. It is not Emmental, and it is not a long-aged alpine wheel. There is a town called Maasdam. The cheese is a modern dairy style, not a medieval recipe of that town.
History
Swiss-style cheese with holes was popular in the Netherlands, and Emmental took time and money to age. In the late twentieth century Dutch dairies developed a cheese that would form eyes and a sweet flavor on a shorter schedule. Maasdam was the result. The name was taken from a town in South Holland. The cheese was not unearthed from that town's past.
Brands sold the style widely. Some of those brands are better known than the word Maasdam itself. This page uses Maasdam for the style and does not treat any one company as the definition. Copies and close relatives now sit in supermarket cases across Europe. They are industrial cheeses in the straightforward sense: designed, repeatable, and made for slicing.
How it is made
Cow's milk is made into a pressed wheel, and propionic cultures are used so the cheese forms eyes and develops a sweet, nutty aroma as it ripens. That is the same family of fermentation that makes the eyes in Emmental. The difference is the design. Maasdam is made to be ready sooner, with a softer paste and a milder taste.
The wheels are large compared with a shopper's wedge, and the eyes should be round and glossy, not tiny slits and not huge collapsed holes. There is no washed rind and no long clothbound aging. A very dry, sharp piece has left the style. The point is a moist, sweet slice.
Taste
Maasdam tastes sweet, mild, and nutty, with a smell that people describe as alpine even though the cheese is Dutch and lowland. The paste is smooth and flexible. The eyes are visual more than they are a flavor. A good piece is clean and slightly buttery.
It should not taste bitter, soapy, or sharply acidic. If the only impression is sweetness with no dairy freshness, the wedge may be old or very cold. Let it warm. If it then tastes dull or fermented, use it for cooking or discard it. This is not a cheese whose faults become interesting with age.
In the kitchen
Slice it for sandwiches and breakfast bread. Melt it on potatoes, in a croque, or in a mild fondue-style dish when you want nuttiness without the cost or the savor of a long-aged Gruyère. It browns and stretches reasonably well. Children and anyone who dislikes strong cheese usually accept it.
Do not put it at the center of a cheese board that is supposed to show age, farm, or funk. It will taste simple next to an old Gouda or a washed rind. Emmental is the substitute when you want the original sweet eye cheese and can use a drier, longer-aged slice. Young Gouda is the substitute when you want a Dutch cheese and do not care about holes. A recipe that says Maasdam or Maasdammer wants this sweet, holey, mild slice.
Around the world
Maasdam is a Dutch supermarket cheese that traveled through European groceries and sandwich shops. People often meet it as the holey cheese in a deli case, without hearing the story of Emmental at all. For them it is not a copy. It is the normal sweet cheese with eyes.
That is a fair use. The cheese was invented to be normal. It does not need a castle or a cave. It also should not be sold, in words, as if it were a wheel from the Emmental valley. Swiss Emmental is protected and older in method. French Emmental is a related industrial cheese of another country. Maasdam is the Dutch member of that modern family.