This is by no means just a nice sliced cheese. A cheese platter is an assortment of expensive, high-quality, noble cheeses. To enjoy a cheese platter, you don’t have to go to a restaurant, it can be easily assembled at home, following a few rules.
1. Cheese is best served on a wooden board. You can also use special earthenware plates with a wooden base, ceramic or porcelain plates.
2. The number of cheeses on the plate must be odd – 3, 5, 7, and so on. Of course, nothing bad will happen if you end up with an even number of cheeses on your cheese plate, but just know that chefs and gourmets are demanding about it.
3. An ideal plate should contain:
- fresh goat cheese,
- soft white cheese such as brie or camembert
- semi-soft cheese, preferably made from cow’s milk, for example brik,
- blue cheese such as roquefort, stilton or gorgosola,
- hard cheese of your choice.
4. Cheese should be placed clockwise – from the most tender to the most piquant, spicy.
5. To prevent the cheese from weathering, it is better not to cut it into small pieces, but put a large piece of cheese, and several chopped pieces next to it. The cheese is cut at the rate of 50 grams of each type per person.
You can cut cheeses into slices, thin layers, rolling into tubes, cubes. Perfectly sliced cheese is when the rim, rind and core of each type are visible.
By the way, Camembert and Brie cut into triangles and do it right before serving. But blue cheeses are cut into slices that can be broken by hand.
6. Chefs advise adding other ingredients to the cheese plate: pieces of fruit, nuts, sauces.
There are many things that will suit Mozzarela. Camembert and Brie are best complemented by sour berries, seasonal strawberries and blueberries. Blue cheeses are best served with neutral berries, grapes and nuts. Appropriate on a cheese plate will be: various nuts, pears, figs, apples, pineapple and, of course, grapes.
Jams go well with cheese. Jams made from apricot and figs, as well as liquid honey, work well. Do not forget about fresh bread: rustic baguette, bread with walnuts or dried fruits, crackers.
7. Wine is a constant companion of a cheese plate. There is only one rule here – the more pronounced and complex the cheese tastes, the richer the wine should be. Therefore, evaluate which cheeses are more on your plate – and make a choice in favor of the appropriate wine.
If you are going to uncork several wines, then keep in mind that it is better to serve sauvignon with goat cheese, and chardonnay or red wines with fruity tones are more suitable for camumber and brie.
8. When serving, do not forget to put two different knives on the table so as not to mix the tastes of tender and spicy cheeses. In general, different types of cheese have their own knives. So, Roquefort, like other blue cheeses, is cut with a special device with a fishing line so as not to damage the mold. And for hard cheeses that are difficult to cut, there are special massive knives with handles on both ends.