Once Again it's The-More-You-Know Monday, and we're picking up with the purchasing of cheese.
Once you've found your slices of the good stuff, you'll want to get it home as quickly as possible. One of the most frequently asked questions at the Cheese Importers is whether or not cheese "x" can afford to be left in the car while the rest of the day's shopping is done. Now, the more intense cheese shopper will have brought his or her insulated "freezer bag" and maybe even a full on cooler with ice, but these are the exceptions to the rule. The truth is that the answer depends on any number of factors and cannot simply be generalized. Helpful, huh?
From the very start of a cheese's life there are processes occurring within the paste and rind, the general aging process if you will. Keeping it in a temperate and humidity controlled state, as any cheese store should, keeps it in the ideal conditions to live as long as possible, but as soon as you remove it from the cold the processes speed up considerably and you risk the cheese turning. As a general rule of thumb, the younger and more fragile the cheese the less time you want to keep it out of the cold. Your Parmigiano Reggiano could last for hours in a ventilated car, your Brie will not necessarily be so lucky. This being said logic is your friend and, on those days where the seatbelt gives you a 3rd degree burn, you'll want to get the cheese home quick no matter what kind it is, but otherwise most firm and semi-firm cheeses have a grace period of an hour or so. It will not taste as good as it would had it never warmed up prior to being served, but it will not have turned.
You should typically try to purchase your cheeses the day that you're going to serve them, again for freshness sake, and if you are so fortunate to shop at a store with it's own affineur, a professional cheese ager, then you will have bought your piece at the peak of its flavor anyways.
Once your cheese is safely home you'll want to keep it in a similarly controlled environment as is found in a cheese store (or, say, a traditional cheese aging cave... coincidence?). Humidity is actually as important as temperature here, so placing cheese in the more humid vegetable drawer of your fridge is often recommended. Wrapping it in wax paper or a similar breathable paper is far better than plastic, which effectively suffocates cheese and can impart a harsh flavor, but better yet put them in some tupperware, being sure to keep the more "ripe" or blue cheeses separate as they don't play nicely with others. Alternatively the long-term planner might buy a cheese storing contraption such as this (right), but only if you have the fridge space and plan on using it.
Do not freeze cheese. Just don't do it.
Do look forward to putting on an epic cheese party with all of your carefully chosen, transported and stored cheese. Given that you've bought all of this cheese you would be doing yourself a disfavor if you didn't then go and buy just the right accompaniments to best bring out and accentuate the flavors of each. Dried fruit is often a big hit, cranberries and apricots are staples but shelling out for cherries and figs is sure to please. Even the prune has a place on the cheese board. Some cheeses call for fresh fruit and crisp apples with blue cheese or pears with any fruity cheese is a knockout. Nuts can also accompany a wide range of cheeses, walnuts and almonds being a great pair for blue cheese as well. Preserves, ever the conveyors of rich and complex flavors, can also be mated with cheeses to give an old cheese a new twist. More on pairing later, but hands on learning is best so experiment and be bold.
You will, of course want to have a comfortable stash of baguettes on hand as they will almost always run out before the cheese does, leaving guests to get creative (Brillat-Savarin between two dried apricots is actually really good), but cut one or two up into thin slices and arrange them near the soft cheeses especially. Whether you have cheeses and pairings sharing a plate or not is a matter of taste, but if you are unsure as to what will pair best with what it never hurts to have everything separate.
Do make sure that you take the cheeses out of the fridge some time before the party begins to allow them to come to room temperature. A cold cheese will fall short in flavor, aroma, and texutre compared to the same cheese a few degrees warmer. Usually a half an hour is a good average across cheeses, a little more won't hurt either. While your cheese is warming, though, make sure it's still wrapped in wax paper or at least covered somehow, or will dry out in this time and you will have lost a good deal of the cheeses' character. Keep in mind, too, that some brie-like cheeses will spread out onto a plate as they warm up, so plan ahead.
There are a number of ways to present cheeses that make it easier for the guests to know what they're eating, such as grouping them by milk type or country of origin, but these are again mostly matters of preference. What should be paid attention to, however is the intensity of the cheeses. Placing cheeses of similar intensity and/or texture together will help the guests to know what they're getting themselves into and also make issues like sharing knives (a no-no between blues or washed rinds and anything else) less problematic. I've made tiny little toothpick signs for cheese, I've announced cheeses at the start of parties, at the end of the day the more you and your guests know about the cheeses you're enjoying the more involved everyone will feel and the more fun you'll have. Furthermore, and this is a rather large leap of faith into how much the ravenous hordes, host included, can be controlled, the order in which one eats cheese is going to have an effect on how each tastes. The folks at Artisinal Cheese really do a great job in describing the ideal progression from mild and young cheeses to the fierce and spicy blues and washed rinds, the idea of course being that a one hour long aftertaste from the explosive Spanish blue Cabrales will make appreciating a delicate fresh goat cheese a little tricky.
Wine pairing should be done with the understanding that pairing 7 wines with 7 cheeses, while an appealing concept, is rarely practical and would likely lead to a good deal of guests no longer being able to stand up much less appreciate what they're eating. Choose a few that can work with a number of cheeses and encourage sampling, and cheese can in fact be enjoyed without alcohol so there is no shame in popping open the sparkling cider and kicking it old school.
At the end of the day, if there's cheese, bread, accompaniments, and refreshments enough to go around, the cheese party cannot fail. I like to play classy jazz and such in the background. Some people prefer house and dubstep. Whatever. I like to dress up in vests and top hats and (one day) monocles. No one else dose anything like that, actually. The point is, cheese parties can be whole evening's entertainment, dinner, and education, and what better way to really branch out than have everyone bring some new cheese and try a little of each. Guten Appetit!
Caution
There will always be those clowns who bring blocks of mild cheddar or, mercy, Kraft Singles to a BYOC party as a joke. In certain manuscripts of Dante's Inferno there is reference to a level for just such behavior. In the meantime good old fashioned shunning works pretty well.
Once you've found your slices of the good stuff, you'll want to get it home as quickly as possible. One of the most frequently asked questions at the Cheese Importers is whether or not cheese "x" can afford to be left in the car while the rest of the day's shopping is done. Now, the more intense cheese shopper will have brought his or her insulated "freezer bag" and maybe even a full on cooler with ice, but these are the exceptions to the rule. The truth is that the answer depends on any number of factors and cannot simply be generalized. Helpful, huh?
From the very start of a cheese's life there are processes occurring within the paste and rind, the general aging process if you will. Keeping it in a temperate and humidity controlled state, as any cheese store should, keeps it in the ideal conditions to live as long as possible, but as soon as you remove it from the cold the processes speed up considerably and you risk the cheese turning. As a general rule of thumb, the younger and more fragile the cheese the less time you want to keep it out of the cold. Your Parmigiano Reggiano could last for hours in a ventilated car, your Brie will not necessarily be so lucky. This being said logic is your friend and, on those days where the seatbelt gives you a 3rd degree burn, you'll want to get the cheese home quick no matter what kind it is, but otherwise most firm and semi-firm cheeses have a grace period of an hour or so. It will not taste as good as it would had it never warmed up prior to being served, but it will not have turned.
You should typically try to purchase your cheeses the day that you're going to serve them, again for freshness sake, and if you are so fortunate to shop at a store with it's own affineur, a professional cheese ager, then you will have bought your piece at the peak of its flavor anyways.
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| Cheese Saver |
Do not freeze cheese. Just don't do it.
Do look forward to putting on an epic cheese party with all of your carefully chosen, transported and stored cheese. Given that you've bought all of this cheese you would be doing yourself a disfavor if you didn't then go and buy just the right accompaniments to best bring out and accentuate the flavors of each. Dried fruit is often a big hit, cranberries and apricots are staples but shelling out for cherries and figs is sure to please. Even the prune has a place on the cheese board. Some cheeses call for fresh fruit and crisp apples with blue cheese or pears with any fruity cheese is a knockout. Nuts can also accompany a wide range of cheeses, walnuts and almonds being a great pair for blue cheese as well. Preserves, ever the conveyors of rich and complex flavors, can also be mated with cheeses to give an old cheese a new twist. More on pairing later, but hands on learning is best so experiment and be bold.
You will, of course want to have a comfortable stash of baguettes on hand as they will almost always run out before the cheese does, leaving guests to get creative (Brillat-Savarin between two dried apricots is actually really good), but cut one or two up into thin slices and arrange them near the soft cheeses especially. Whether you have cheeses and pairings sharing a plate or not is a matter of taste, but if you are unsure as to what will pair best with what it never hurts to have everything separate.
Do make sure that you take the cheeses out of the fridge some time before the party begins to allow them to come to room temperature. A cold cheese will fall short in flavor, aroma, and texutre compared to the same cheese a few degrees warmer. Usually a half an hour is a good average across cheeses, a little more won't hurt either. While your cheese is warming, though, make sure it's still wrapped in wax paper or at least covered somehow, or will dry out in this time and you will have lost a good deal of the cheeses' character. Keep in mind, too, that some brie-like cheeses will spread out onto a plate as they warm up, so plan ahead.
There are a number of ways to present cheeses that make it easier for the guests to know what they're eating, such as grouping them by milk type or country of origin, but these are again mostly matters of preference. What should be paid attention to, however is the intensity of the cheeses. Placing cheeses of similar intensity and/or texture together will help the guests to know what they're getting themselves into and also make issues like sharing knives (a no-no between blues or washed rinds and anything else) less problematic. I've made tiny little toothpick signs for cheese, I've announced cheeses at the start of parties, at the end of the day the more you and your guests know about the cheeses you're enjoying the more involved everyone will feel and the more fun you'll have. Furthermore, and this is a rather large leap of faith into how much the ravenous hordes, host included, can be controlled, the order in which one eats cheese is going to have an effect on how each tastes. The folks at Artisinal Cheese really do a great job in describing the ideal progression from mild and young cheeses to the fierce and spicy blues and washed rinds, the idea of course being that a one hour long aftertaste from the explosive Spanish blue Cabrales will make appreciating a delicate fresh goat cheese a little tricky.
At the end of the day, if there's cheese, bread, accompaniments, and refreshments enough to go around, the cheese party cannot fail. I like to play classy jazz and such in the background. Some people prefer house and dubstep. Whatever. I like to dress up in vests and top hats and (one day) monocles. No one else dose anything like that, actually. The point is, cheese parties can be whole evening's entertainment, dinner, and education, and what better way to really branch out than have everyone bring some new cheese and try a little of each. Guten Appetit!
Caution
There will always be those clowns who bring blocks of mild cheddar or, mercy, Kraft Singles to a BYOC party as a joke. In certain manuscripts of Dante's Inferno there is reference to a level for just such behavior. In the meantime good old fashioned shunning works pretty well.
I hear young Gouda is a good thing to bring to a cheese party too. =p
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