A
quick guide to serving a cheese course
by:
Ari Weinzweig
There
are no hard and fast rules that legislate obscure legal
complexities into the life of a cheese course. It can be as formal
as an array of elegant cheeses served on centuries old silver
platters, or as familiar as a wedge of good local cheddar quickly
set out on a wooden cutting board with a basket of bread and a
crisp green apple. So don’t worry too much about cheese course
rules. Instead, let your guests sit back, enjoy the company,
swallow the last soft sips of wine, and enjoy the cheese.
Below
is a good set of guidelines that should help you emphasize the
pleasures of the cheese course on your table.
Which
cheeses do you choose for your cheese course?
It
may sound silly to even mention it, but when it comes right down
to it, just choose the cheeses you like. There’s no sense
serving cheese you don’t want to eat, no matter how impressive
it may look or sound. The point is to create a pleasurable part of
an evening’s entertainment – no matter how casual or formal
– not to fit anyone else’s idea of a “proper” cheese
course.
I
use 3 rules of thumb
- Choose
cheeses whose flavours are compatible with the main course
you’ve served before them. When you’re serving, let’s
say, a pungent garlic, and saffron-scented bouillabaisse for
dinner, you’ll want to find cheeses flavours that won’t
get lost in the aftermath of the main course; say a nicely
aged goat cheese, maybe a bit of beautiful Blue. On the other
hand if you’re serving up a delicate fresh trout, look for
cheeses with softer less assertive flavours; say a nice creamy
piece of Teleme, a mild goat cheese.
- Follow
the regional styles of the main dish. If you’re serving
northern Italian food, look to northern Italian style cheeses.
More often than not the cheeses of the region will be well
suited to the local cooking – after a few hundred years
together one will have adapted to the other to create a
mutually rewarding culinary relationship.
- Pick
the best cheeses you can find. You’re looking for big bang
for your cheese buck; buy small quantities but buy the best. A
few slivers of a great cheese will satisfy in a way that
mediocre cheese never will. Eat it slowly. Appreciate it.
The
only cheeses that don’t work well for me are smoked or spiced
cheeses; their flavours tend to be too intrusive when you’re
trying to make your way gently from savoury to sweet.
How
many cheeses should I serve after dinner?
However
many you want. One is fine. Two is good. Three’s OK. Quality is
much more important than quantity.
How
much cheese do you need?
Not
much really. In most cases, a half an ounce to an ounce per person
per cheese is more than enough. If you’re offering up an
outstanding aged cheddar after dinner for four, a quarter of a
pound wedge should be plenty. The point is to linger, not to fill
up.
What
do you serve with your cheese course besides cheese?
Bread,
Fruit, Crackers are all fine. I like to keep it simple. A great
loaf of bread that will compliment, but never get in the way of
the cheese.
Serve
Cheese at room temperature. I would guess that most everyone
reading this already knows this. But if you’re trying to get
someone else to set out a bit of cheese late in the meal, remind
them that they’ll get the most out of theirs at room
temperature. Even the
best farmhouse cheddar may get lost in the aftermath of a big meal
if it’s served right out of the refrigerator. So don’t do it.
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