My wife and I want to throw a cheese tasting party sometime next month. Have people over, have a good selection of artisan (or good non-artisan) cheeses, socialize, the works.
Never having thrown or attended a cheese party before, I figure we could use some help, namely:
• Any suggestions about what cheeses to serve. (We’re in Seattle, the party would be in mid-May. There are several places we could buy cheese, but I don’t know offhand what they generally have.)
• Suggestions about what to serve the cheese on. Bread? Crackers? Fruit? I’m guessing all of the above, depending on the cheese.
• If you have any suggestions about wine and other drinks, what the heck, throw those in, too. We can’t afford a full array of wines, but one or two inexpensive-but-good things to look for would be handy.
I had an amazing cheese last night called Mt. Tan, can’t remember the type of cheese- it was from a cheesemaker in California so you should have access to it out there. Creamy but with a slight bite and also a little sweetness, very complex and cool.
Crackers with little to no aggressive taste are perfect to let the taste of the cheese dominate. Miniature toasts work well also, and let you try a bumch of different samples without getting full.
As a newbie, I am a huge fan of the cheese counter at Whole Foods Market, where the peeps know what they’re talking about and make suggestions while managing not to be intimdated.
My SO is a much more experienced cheese fanatic, she swears by a small sip of cranberry juice to bring out the more poignant flavors in cheese. A small sip of cranberry juice before a slice of Havarti, for example, is an interesting intensifier. Cranberry or not, you want something acidic or tannic to set off the individual flavors of the cheese you choose. A wine seller should be able to recommend a few nice bott;es based on the cheeses you select. This is also the reason that tart apples go very well with cheeses of all kinds.
Hmm… I love cheese, and I love cheese tasting parties. Great idea, Interrobang!?.
Something important to remember at cheese tasting parties is Do Not Serve Orange Juice! Some friends and me learned the hard way that cheese and OJ don’t mix. Don’t know if you were planning to serve orange juice, but don’t.
As for cheeses, I don’t know what kind you have in the USA, but I recommend Roquefort, Stilton, Cheddar, and Old Amsterdam. These are all very “strong” cheeses: I don’t know which way you want to go, but these is definitely something for people who want to go ‘all out’ in the cheese departement. I’d say: ask your cheese-selling …uhm… person for advise, and try to come up with something varied that everyone will enjoy.
Hey, !?, I’m in Seattle . . . I wouldn’t show up empty handed . . .
I’ve had some amazing sheep’s-milk cheeses lately, from that Italian shop at Pike Place whose name escapes me not enough coffee yet you see. Also some excellent cheeses to choose from at Central Market, way the hell north. There’s–or there was; about a year since I visited–a great but tiny little shop on Second Ave, north BellTowny area. Irish imports, mostly, with some great obscure cheeses and other dairy oddities.
I suggest choosing cheeses to reflect a range of textures, nationalities and intensities of flavor. The below list starts at the mild end of the spectrum and ends up with strong, full-flavored cheeses:
Brie
Camembert
Gruyere or Swiss
Ripened goat cheese
Manchego
Parmigiano Reggiano
New York white cheddar
Stilton
Societe Roqueforte
A plain cracker, a slightly sweet whole wheat cracker, and a few sliced-up baguettes would go well, as would some ripe pears and a couple of bunches of grapes.
With cheeses 1-6, a dry, fruity red wine such as a Cotes du Rhone or pinot noir would go well, and something sweet like a tawny port would go well with cheeses 8-9.
Well, I really like Stripey Jack. It’s something like 5 English cheeses stuck together in a wheel.
My parents did one of these. I think there was Stripey Jack, Brie, Camembert, Wenslydale with cranberries, and several other types. I’m not a big fan of soft cheese (cream cheese excepted) so I was mostly eating the Stripey Jack and some of the other hard cheeses.
Whatever you do, do NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT SERVING ORANGE CHEESE!! Orange cheese is the food of the devil, and shows that you don’t know a good cheese when you see it. If you have to DYE your cheese, then it isn’t quality! If you can’t get your hands on a good white cheddar, don’t server cheddar at all. And don’t even THINK about marble or anything else like that.
As for the wine, ask at your local wine shop, but also to avoid a large cost, ask your guests to bring something. Assign a price range, and assign each guest or couple a wine varietal, so you have lots of selection. Make sure you have water pitchers and buckets if people only want to taste the wine, or switch often between types as they taste the cheeses.
Also, I’d recommend a good bottle of port to finish things off - nothing quite as good as port and some fine cheeses!
Pears, apples, grapes are all good to pair with cheese, as well as various crackers and breads, but also consider having some walnuts or almonds around, as these go very will with many of the soft cheeses, such as Brie and Camembert. Make sure you find out about nut allergies among your guests first, though!
OH, and don’t make the mistake a friend of mine did - brie and camembert should be taken out of the fridge long enough ahead of time for the cheese to be soft and kinda melting. You could even take a small wheel of one or the other, place it in an oven-safe pan, sprinkle it with cranberries and almonds and a bit of brown sugar and heat it in the oven untl slightly browned and definitely melted. Makes for VERY good eating
Cheshire cheese has a very unique texture and also tastes great - it’s not strong. Well worth checking out.
(I’m from Cheshire, but it doesn’t influence me).
And some orange cheeses are good - Red Leicester?
Also checking in from Seattle- Whole Foods here is good, and as lissener said Central Market on Aurora has a surprisingly broad range; and if price is less of a concern, there’s always Larry’s Market.
But actually my favorite cheese now is Trader Joe’s Manchego (it’s a Spanish sheep’s milk). It’s a good thing TJ’s doesn’t sell it by the wheel- I’d never leave the house.
Check out your local Trader Joes and talk to their people. They have a good cheese selection and nice alternatives (e.g., Canadian brie). Prices are good, as well. You can also pick up bread, crackers and some wines at TJs as well. As much as I love TJs, I am not impressed with their produce. I dislike my food pre-packaged and well, I’m generally just --meh-- about the produce.
Someone up there recommended ripe pears as a fruit. Well, if you’re going to have pears, you gots to have havarti! It’s a great combination.
If you’re going to serve camembert & brie (which you totally should), remember to “thaw” it to room temperature-sih before serving. Few things are blander (or less compliant) than brie right out of the fridge.
Blue recommendations here:
I actually like an orange cheese called Shropshire Blue. It is a wonderful, creamy blue with complex flavours. Ewe’s Blue from Old Chatham is probably my all time favourite Blue cheese, closely followed by Blue D’auvergne
Brie De Meaux is probably the finest Brie out there BUT make sure you taste it first, the last time I bought some, it was a bit off and disappointing.
For some ready made suggestions, check out the sample page. It has some nice combinations, The “Edward” looks particularly tasty.
I can’t wait for the Evanston Farmers Market to start up again, there is a guy who comes each week who brings small dairy cheeses from all over the Midwest, last summer I estimate I spent over $150 in his crackhouse…I mean Chateu De Fromage:)
Quark is weird stuff. I had some when I was in Germany, and the comparisions made to cream cheese were kinda on. I have no idea what the calories and fat grams were.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Limburger. I tried it at a cheese tasting party once and despite the smell that precedes it, it tastes wonderful. I had it on water crackers (which have zero flavor) with some nice horseradish mustard. Exquisite.
It’s pretty brave to serve the stinkiest cheese ever at a cheese-tasting party, so I don’t blame you at all if you opt not to. However, it really is an extraordinary flavor and quite unusual.
