Cheese plate

Cheese plate (it's a cheese board) is an assortment of different types of cheeses. It is made up of pieces arranged in a certain order. Some fruit (including dried fruits), nuts, fresh herbs, fruit jams in small open containers, for example, pialas, can be used as an additional decoration for the cheese plate.

A well thought-out, composed and decorated cheese plate will be a wonderful end to any, even the most refined meal (for example, in France it is customary to serve cheeses as a mandatory dessert). Moreover, the cheese can also play an independent party, in this capacity it is usually served as a snack for wines and stronger drinks.

Serving cheese plate

We will talk about how to properly make a cheese plate.

1. We buy cheeses for the minimum period of time before the planned filing (this is a maximum of 3 days, and not a week).
2. It is believed that it is best to serve cheese on a wooden board, marble or granite surface. As a cheese plate, a special board made of hard, non-tarry and odorless wood species is traditionally used. You can use ceramic or porcelain planks-dishes, preferably without a picture (this is mauveton). As an alternative (in the village, in the country, in nature) you can use wicker dishes from a wood vine.
3. We take the cheeses from the refrigerator, at least one hour before slicing, laying and feeding.
4. Typically, a cheese plate is formed from five or more different cheeses (well, when they are visually distinguishable). We start from gentle and soft, we finish with firm tart, sharp and piquant.
5. Cheese slices should be arranged to enhance the taste in a clockwise direction.
6. Pieces of one kind of cheese should not come into contact with another, so when making a cheese plate we leave gaps.
7. Slices of cheese should not be too thin.
8. If the cheese plate is served as a dessert, then the weight of the pieces should be about 25-50 grams each.
9. In case the cheese plate is served as a main dish, the weight of a piece of each kind of cheese can be from 150 to 200 grams. In this version, you can serve a knife, a knife with a fork or a special knife-fork. If the fork is missing, do not hesitate to cut the cheese with a knife and eat with your hands, so do, for example, in Provence.
10. To taste with cheeses some fruit is perfectly combined, namely: some sorts of plums, pears, apples, table grapes, dried figs, raisins, dried apricots, - as well as nuts and olives. By this we fill the gaps in the cheese plate. We try to avoid especially exotic tropical fruits, except for avocado. We decorate the cheese plate with fresh herbs.
11. Sauce for a cheese plate is not needed, especially it is necessary to avoid mayonnaise, beloved by everyone in the post-Soviet space.
12. Making a set of cheeses, drinks and greens, we proceed from regional (or at least) national traditions: French cheeses to French drinks, Italian - to Italian, Caucasian, respectively, to Caucasian, although this rule is not strict, but still.
13. It is not superfluous to supplement the cheese plate with fresh crispy bread slices or dry crackers.
14. In the "rural" version of the cheese plate composition, you can serve garlic and spicy pepper, as well as natural country butter and green onions - this combination of products with a glass of other home unsusfied wine, and you will see that life is beautiful.

The basic classical combination of cheeses with wines

1. The more intense the taste of cheese, the more difficult it is to have a bouquet of wine served to it.
2. To hard sharp cheeses - red wines.
3. To semi-hard, not too salty - light young wines with a well-expressed fruit acidity.
4. To soft cream cheese - dry and dry wines.
5. To blue cheeses, cheeses with a noble mold or a moldy crust - brut, fortified, special wines and stronger drinks.
6. Goat cheese - sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling.

Cheese plate - recipe (very approximate)

• Mozzarella or feta;
• Neuchatel;
• Camembert or Edam, Gouda;
• Emmental or Maasdam;
• Parmesan or Gruyer, Pecorino;
• Roquefort or Dor blu, Gorgonzola.

In addition to the cheese plate, it is also appropriate to serve beautifully decorated meat and vegetable slicks to the table.