Brown cheese made from whey, milk and cream, boiled until the sugars caramelise. Sliced thin with a cheese plane onto crispbread, waffles or a sourdough loaf.
Brunost dates to 1863 when dairymaid Anne Hov first added cream to the whey in the Solbråsetra dairy in Gudbrandsdalen; it has been Norway's most definitive food export ever since. The caramelised brown cheese was patented as Gudbrandsdalsost by TINE in 1866 and became a Norwegian breakfast and lunch fixture. Oslo's Hagen Konditori, the Mathallen brown cheese counter and Solberg & Hansen sell the canonical version sliced thin onto crispbread or sourdough.
3 editor picks for Brunost in Oslo, ranked by editorial score. All Oslo signature dishes · Brunost across every city.
Mathallen Oslo ★ 4.6
vulkan · Vulkan 5, 0178 Oslo
Mathallen Oslo on Vulkan opened in 2012 as the city's permanent food hall, with 30 producer-led stalls, the Hitchhiker and Fenaknoken counters.
Bondens marked Birkelunden ★ 4.5
grunerlokka · Seilduksgata 23B, 0553 Oslo
Bondens marked Birkelunden is the Grünerløkka producer farmers market at Seilduksgata 23B, with rotating small-farm producers, Norwegian heritage cheese.
Kaffistova ★ 3.9
sentrum · Rosenkrantz' gate 8, 0159 Oslo
Kaffistova on the ground floor of Hotell Bondeheimen on Rosenkrantz' gate has served Norwegian home cooking since 1901, with raspeballer, boknafisk.