Wedel Jarlsberg Land

Wedel Jarlsberg Land is the land area between Van Keulenfjorden and Hornsund on the southwestern part of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The area is largely covered with glaciers, and is completely within the Sør-Spitsbergen National Park.

Named after Baron Fritz Wedel Jarlsberg (1855-1942), Norwegian minister in Paris, to whose initiative and labour it was greatly due that Norway succeeded in acquiring the sovereignty of Svalbard by a treaty signed in Paris on February 9, 1920. Until then it had been regarded as no-man's-land. The northwestern part of the area was earlier called Orvin Land.

References

Coordinates: 77°19′40″N 14°59′00″E / 77.32778°N 14.98333°E / 77.32778; 14.98333

Jarlsberg

Jarlsberg was a former countship that forms a part of today’s Vestfold county in Norway. The former countships of Jarlsberg and Larvik were merged into a county in 1821. Jarlsberg and Larvik’s County (Jarlsberg og Larviks amt) were renamed Vestfold in 1919.

Created in 1673 as Griffenfeldt Countship (Griffenfeld grevskap), it was after a few years known as Tønsberg Countship (Tønsberg grevskap) until 1684, when the name became Jarlsberg. Dating to 1681, the countship was associated with members of the Dano-Norwegian noble family, Wedel-Jarlsberg.

Jarlsberg was originally created as a countship in 1673 for Peder Schumacher Griffenfeld, a Danish statesman and Chancellor of Denmark during the reign of King Christian V of Denmark. The creation involved that Count Griffenfeld, in addition to owning 14 percent of the countship’s land, received large tax revenues and also the right to appoint all civil and ecclesiastical officials, including officers and judges, who would serve within the countship.

Jarlsberg cheese

Jarlsberg (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈjɑːɭsˈbærɡ]; English /ˈjɑːrlzbɜːrɡ/) is a mild cow's-milk cheese with large regular holes, that originates from Jarlsberg, Norway.

Description

Jarlsberg cheese has a yellow-wax rind (outer layer) and a semi-firm yellow interior. It is a mild, buttery cheese. The flavor is "clean and rich, with a slightly sweet and nutty flavour." It is an all-purpose cheese, used for both cooking and eating as a snack. It has a characteristic smooth, shiny-yellow body, and a creamy supple texture. It is aged a minimum of one year and is distinguished by medium to large holes. It is usually produced in 10 kg wheels with an approximate diameter of 330 mm and a height of 95-105 mm. The characteristic holes or "eyes" are the result of the action of the bacteria Propionibacterium freudenreichii which naturally occurs in milk and is added back to the cheese during production according to a closely guarded secret formula.

History

The history of this cheese can be traced back to the middle 1850s. Anders Larsen Bakke (1815–1899), a farmer and pioneer in Norway's dairy industry, produced cheese in the Våle village in what was then the county of Jarlsberg and Larviks Amt (now Vestfold), 80 km south of Oslo. The cheese shares similarities with Emmental, introduced to Vestfold by Swiss cheese makers during the 1830s. The cheese was first noted in the annual county report of Jarlsberg and Larviks Amt in 1855. After several years of popularity marked by a large volume of production Jarlsberg disappeared from the market.

Jarlsberg (disambiguation)

Jarlsberg is a former county of Norway.

Jarlsberg may also refer to: