Cheese Top Ten (Well, fourteen Actually)

Top 14 include tastes and textures for all occasions

Choosing cheese for your holiday party or carry-in offering should involve some thought. Like pairing food with wine or presenting a gorgeous entree with just the right sides and sauces to bring out its best qualities, cheeses on a cheese board should complement and contrast with one another.

Consider your own tastes and the tastes of your guests. You might want to present a stunning display of stronger, unique cheeses, or you might want to stick to mostly familiar options and include a couple new varieties that are more sophisticated yet fairly gentle and non-offensive.

In any case, variety is the key word. Go for a range of colors, textures, and flavors to keep each bite exciting.

Cheeses are grouped into categories according to how they are made. Choose representatives from different categories, and don’t stick to only firm or semi firm, slicable cheeses.

Below is a list of some my favorite cheeses.Pick three to five cheeses from different categories for a great selection. Accompany with fruit, sliced salami, olives or other marinated vegetables, plain crackers, slices of french or rye bread, or plain bagel or pita chips. No garlic or otherwise flavored crackers!

Fresh

Le Roule — A fluffy, spreadable, high fat cheese that melts in your mouth, Le Roule is tangy and flavored with garlic or herbs.

Cypress Grove Chevre Purple Haze — Any Cypress Grove fresh Chevre is outstanding, but Purple Haze has the added interest of licorice-flavored fennel pollen and lavender flowers on the exterior. All fresh chèvres have a mild goat flavor and pronounced tang.

Soft Ripened Cow

St. Andre — A super-high-fat, buttery, lightly tangy and utterly decadent cheese that resembles a tall Brie from heaven.
Chaumes — A washed rind cheese that is not very stinky, but which offers a far fuller flavor and more luxurious texture than Brie.
Champignon — A mild Brie-type cheese full of mushroom bits. The flavor is very earthy and delicious.

Ripened Goat

Nevat — A stunning Spanish ripened goat cheese with a dry, flaky interior and a silky layer under the dry, bloomy rind. This one is lemony, tangy, medium-goaty, and delicious.
Humboldt Fog — Arguably the most fabulous cheese in the universe, Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog is a rich, fairly goaty, tangy wonder with a line of vegetable ash through the firm center and a layer of runny silk just under the rind.

Blue

Roquefort — A sheeps’ milk blue from France, Roquefort is one of Europe’s oldest and most venerable cheeses. The flavor is very tangy and tongue-tinglingly pungent, but not stinky. The texture is crumbly yet very moist. This is not a blue cheese for novices. (A good first blue is Saga Danish blue, which is much lighter and sweeter.)

Gorgonzola — An Italian blue with distinctive greenish veining, Gorgonzola can be light and sweet if you buy “dolce” style, or full, stinky, and pungent if you choose a “mountain” or “picante” style. This one’s good mashed with mascarpone to make a spread. Serve with walnuts and honey.

Semi Firm to Firm

Gruyere/Compte — The “other” Swiss cheese, Gruyere/Compte has no holes and has a sweet, firm and big-flavored interior. The rind is washed but adds only a slightly stinky aroma. Gruyere is made on the Swiss side of the Alpine border, and Compte on the French side. They are essentially the same cheese, although the makers would no doubt differ.

Manchego — A sharp Spanish sheeps’ milk cheese, white and slightly oily at room temperature, with a pretty rind imprinted with the baskets it was aged in. Quite sharp with a barnyardy flavor, Manchego is a nice introduction to sheeps’ cheeses. Serve with a sweet jam or spread.

Huntsman — A gorgeous colorful cheese of layered Double Gloucester, which resembles a mild orange cheddar, and Stilton, a crumbly, medium-pungent English blue.

Flavoured

Sage Derby — Derby is an English cheese resembling a sharp yet creamy white cheddar. Ground sage leaves and sage oil pressed between the curds give Sage Derby a beautiful marbled appearance and a powerfully herbal, zappy flavor. Another of my favorites, and different enough to really rouse comments.

Cotswold — Mild orange Double Gloucester mixed with green flakes of chives and onion give this English blended cheese a strong, delicious flavor and pretty appearance. The texture is soft-ish at room temperature, just shy of easily spreadable. Goes great with a big brown ale.

Cheese & eggs with Bill & Sheila

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