Beemster cheese is a hard, Dutch cow's milk cheese. Production of Beemster is similar to other hard cheeses such as Gouda. The specific taste of Beemster stems from the ingredients (milk from grass grown on sea-clay in a polder 4 meters below sea-level) and from the fact that part of the production process (the stirring of the curd) is done by hand and that the cheeses are ripened in changing conditions.