Cheese Database

Obatzda vs Spundekäs

Obatzda, field guide plate
Obatzda, photographed

Obatzda

Facts

Milk
Cow
Texture
Soft
Rind
No rind
Country
Germany

Obatzda is a soft cheese spread from Germany, best known as a Bavarian beer-garden specialty. It is made from ripe cow's milk cheese, usually a soft bloomy cheese, mashed with butter and seasonings. Paprika gives the mixture a warm orange color. Onions, salt, pepper, and often caraway or a splash of beer go into the bowl. The result is a spread, not a wheel with a rind.

Spundekäs

Facts

Texture
Fresh
Type
Fresh
Rind
No rind
Country
Germany

Spundekäs is a fresh cheese specialty from Germany, tied to the wine country of Rhenish Hesse along the Rhine. It is not an aged wheel with a rind. Cooks stir fresh cheese and quark into a soft cream, tint it with paprika, and season it with salt, pepper, and often onion. The mound was traditionally shaped like the bung, or spund, that closed a wine barrel, and that shape gave the dish its name. Wine taverns serve it as a spread with bread and pretzels.