Greve, more properly spelled Grevé, is a Swedish semi-hard cow's-milk cheese developed in the early 1960s to give Sweden its own answer to imported Alpine-style cheeses like Jarlsberg and Emmental. It's known for large round holes and a mild, sweet, nutty flavor.
It's often described as Sweden's answer to Gouda, but the cheese's own development history points closer to Switzerland and Norway than to the Netherlands.
In This Article
The 1964 Origin Story
The groundwork for Grevé was laid in 1944, when the Swedish Dairy Association built a dairy research station in Örnsköldsvik alongside a new cooperative dairy, one of Sweden's two main cheese-development centers of the era. Development of the cheese itself began in 1959 under the name "Project Alpost" (Alp-cheese project), led by two named dairy engineers, Åke Berglöf and Yngve Johansson.
Progress was slow until a study trip to Norway to examine Jarlsberg production sped things along. The stated goal was a cheese blending the character of Swiss Emmental and Norwegian Jarlsberg, both large-holed, nutty Alpine styles, rather than a straight copy of Dutch Gouda.
Full-scale production began at the Örnsköldsvik dairy in May 1963, and the cheese was formally presented to producers and cheese experts at a tasting that October. Sweden's dairy quality-control authority authorized the official quality mark for the finished cheese on 1 October 1964, the date behind the commonly cited "1964" origin year.
How a Sportscaster's Surname Blocked the First Name Choice
Åke Berglöf came up with the cheese's name during a coffee break on a car trip from Örnsköldsvik to Stockholm. He wanted something that sounded French and evoked Gruyère.
Candidates included "Grué" and "Grivé," but Swedish sports commentator Bengt Grive objected to "Grivé" for being too close to his own surname, ruling that option out.
The team settled on "Grevé" instead, a word that doesn't mean anything on its own in Swedish but echoes "greve," the Swedish word for count or duke, lending the name a sense of quality without claiming any specific place of origin.
Who Makes Greve Today
Grevé isn't tied to one producer. Since 2004, the name has been a registered trademark owned by Svenska Ostklassiker AB, a subsidiary jointly controlled by Arla Foods, Falköpings Mejeri, and Norrmejerier, which also owns the related trademarks Präst and Herrgård.
Several licensed Swedish dairies make Grevé under that shared standard, including Arla's Kalmar dairy, Falbygdens Ost (acquired by Arla in 2014, known for a 12-month aged version), Skånemejerier under its Allerum brand, and Norrmejerier.
How Greve Gets Its Large Holes
Grevé's milk is inoculated with mesophilic starter cultures plus propionic acid bacteria, the same bacterial family used in Swiss Emmental. During ripening, those bacteria convert lactic acid into propionic acid, acetic acid, and carbon dioxide gas, and the trapped CO2 is what creates the large, round holes.
The gas has to push the paste apart from the inside, which only works while the young wheel is still elastic. That is why the eyes run through the body of the cheese and thin out toward the rind, where the paste sits drier and firmer and will not balloon.
That's a different mechanism from Gouda, which relies on a washed-curd technique, draining whey and replacing it with warm water to mellow the flavor, rather than a propionic-bacteria fermentation. One Swedish cheese retailer, Ostbiten, notes that Grevé ends up somewhat more compact and springy than true Emmental, with fewer and smaller holes, sitting texturally between Gouda's dense paste and Emmental's springier bite.
Cut a wedge across a run of holes and the slice holds together. Cut along one and you get a lace of paste with more air than cheese in it, which folds over on itself before it reaches the plate.
Full ripeness takes about ten months, though retailers sell it at several aging points, including mild, medium-aged, 12-month, and an extra-aged 18-month version from Falbygdens.
Those tiers behave differently under a knife. A young wheel cuts wet and squeaks against the blade, the 12-month paste comes away dry and clean, and an 18-month wedge can split along the wall of a hole rather than slice through it.
What Greve Tastes Like
A blind taste test run by the Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten, with eight named consumer panelists rating eight different Grevé cheeses, gives a useful cross-section of how Swedes actually describe the cheese. One panelist, Miriam Norén, said quality Grevé "should have a clear nutty taste and nice holes."
Panelist Giovanni Salaris praised the top-rated entry for its "dry consistency and chewing resistance," closer to Emmental than a softer Gouda-style bite.
Age moves the cheese along one line instead of changing what it is. The mild tier tastes mostly of sweet milk with the nuttiness sitting well back, the 12-month version pulls that nutty note forward and dries out the finish, and the 18-month wheel concentrates both.
What Grevé never turns into is sharp. A slice can sit under pickled herring or a strong mustard without arguing with it, which is most of the reason it works as an everyday sandwich cheese rather than a board centerpiece.
Grevé is often set against Präst, an older, saltier, cream-forward Swedish cheese with genuine roots in 16th-century church-tithe traditions. A Swedish cheese blogger has noted that committed Präst loyalists often reject Grevé, along with other Emmental-style cheeses like Jarlsberg and Maasdammer, treating the two as rival camps rather than close relatives.
How to Serve Greve
Greve is a household staple in Sweden, most often eaten on open-faced sandwiches, called smörgås, where its mild flavor doesn't overpower toppings.
Swedish households cut it with an osthyvel, the slotted cheese slicer that shaves a sheet thin enough to drape over rye bread. A knife slice cut to the thickness of a cork loads the bread down and buries whatever else is on it.
It also shows up grated over pasta, layered into cheese pies, and built into smörgåstårta, a savory layered sandwich cake served at Swedish celebrations. Because it melts smoothly, it's a common choice for gratins and other baked dishes, and it holds a place on Swedish cheese boards alongside Präst and Herrgård as one of the "traditional trio" of everyday household cheeses.
Grate it straight from the refrigerator. A springy paste warms fast in the hand and starts gumming up the fine side of a grater, where the coarse side gives shreds that spread evenly over a dish.
Under a broiler it browns and softens rather than splitting into oil, so it can finish a gratin as well as fill one. In a pan, keep the heat moderate, since a slice driven hard tightens and squeaks before it flows.
What to Use Instead When Greve Isn't Available
A young Jarlsberg is the closest substitute, sharing the same large-holed, nutty-sweet character that inspired Grevé in the first place. A mild Emmental works as a second option, though it typically reads a touch sharper.
Neither swap is free. Jarlsberg is sweeter and softer, so a sandwich built on it reads richer than the original, and Emmental's sharper edge shows up most in a dish where the cheese is the loudest thing on the plate.
The swap matters less in cooking than on a board. Heat flattens the distance between the three, but a plain slice leaves nowhere for the difference to hide.
Buying Greve
Greve is sold internationally mostly through Scandinavian specialty importers rather than mainstream supermarkets, often as a full wheel that ships by freight rather than parcel post.
That changes what to ask for. A whole wheel arrives as one piece with nothing to reseal it with, so it is worth asking the importer whether they cut and vacuum-seal to order before paying freight on the lot.
Settle the age before the brand. The gap between the standard tier and the 18-month version is wider than the gap between two licensed dairies making the same standard tier.
At roughly $17 to $21 a pound, a wheel is a real commitment for a cheese meant to be eaten daily on bread. Buy the smallest format your grocer will cut the first time, and scale up once you know which tier you want.
Nutrition and Safety
Per 100g, manufacturer data from Skånemejerier lists 360 kcal, 28g fat (18g saturated), 0g carbohydrate, 27g protein, and 0.118g salt for its standard 28%-fat Grevé. Other online nutrition aggregators cite somewhat higher figures, so treat the manufacturer's own numbers as the more reliable reference.
At 27g of protein and no carbohydrate per 100g, the cheese carries the protein in a smörgås and the bread underneath carries everything else. A slice thin enough to drape still counts, which is why the everyday portion in Sweden stays small.
Check the salt figure against the pack in front of you rather than against this one. Several licensed dairies make Grevé to the shared standard, and the panel on an Arla wheel need not match the Skånemejerier one quoted here.
Greve is made with pasteurized milk, which makes it a safer choice than raw-milk cheeses for pregnant women and others avoiding unpasteurized dairy.
Storing Greve
Wrap the cut face first and worry about the rind second. Exposed paste dries from the face inward, and a dried face goes chalky at the edge and leaves the nearest holes looking papery instead of glossy.
A properly wrapped wedge keeps for several weeks in the refrigerator. Once cut, use it within two to three weeks for the best texture.
A little fat sweated onto the wrapper is normal and wipes away with a dry cloth. A cut face that smells sour instead of nutty has gone past use, and no amount of trimming brings it back.
