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Impress your friends -- and yourself-- with ideas from these professionally designed ways to serve your cheese.

The Cured & the Curd: Beef up your winter cheese plate with charcuterie

Written by Brandon Weeks

All right, I admit it—I have a favorite bacteria: Lactobacillus, the genus that is largely responsible for the miracle of cheese. And, as if cheese isn’t reason enough to appreciate this hardworking bacteria, Lactobacillus is also used to cure and preserve some of my favorite meat products.

As the dominant bacterial strain in most cheese cultures, invisible lactobacilli convert lactose into lactic acid, keeping the growth of harmful bacteria in check while enabling rennet to work its magic coagulating the curds. As with cheese, the fat and protein of cured meat are broken down into exponentially more flavorful tidbits by the same action. It’s no wonder that cheese and charcuterie complement each other so well.

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Bring fall flavor home with five aged wedges and their earthy accompaniments

As we continue our lap around the seasons and summer is left far behind, our appetites also make a move. Hearty foods—including dense, ripe cheeses—now become as appealing as do warm sweaters and soft flannel sheets. Our fall cheese plate selection (available from most cheesemongers) satisfies these cool weather cravings with big, nutty, buttery flavors and supple wedges, served with a sampling of easy autumn accompaniments. Just unwrap the cheese, dish out the condiments, and add a few knives. Mmm, what a delicious season.

Garrotxa
Gray-rinded, with a bone-white interior, this signature goat’s milk cheese (pronounced gar-ROACH-uh) comes from Catalonia, Spain, where the goats feast on thyme and rosemary. Close your eyes and slowly savor this nutty, dense cheese to taste its herbal subtleties.
Serve with: Tangy-sweet Sour Cherry Preserves from Harvest Song; harvestsong.com

Rogue River Blue

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Get Fresh - Soft and Sassy Goat's Milk Cheeses Are Back

By Lassa Skinner

Springtime means renewal. Sunlight strengthens and lengthens, vegetation responds with robust new growth, and the natural course of life restarts its captivating cycle. This season of vitality is especially apparent in goat's milk cheeses, which show off the densest, richest milk of the year, full of nutrients for the newborn kids. The same abundance is true, of course, for other milking animals, but as inspiration for a spring cheese board, nothing compares to fresh goat's milk cheeses. Versatile and varied, they are made in a myriad of shapes and sizes with an assortment of coatings, rinds, and wrappings including ash, leaves, herbs, and flowers.

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Five Easy Pieces - Choice Cheese for the Holidays

By Lassa Skinner

Cheese is the quintessential party food – ready-to-serve, crowd-pleasing, good-looking, an affordable. Those are reasons enough to serve this dairy wonder, but there's also the entertainment factor. Specialty cheeses–especially artisanal and venerable old-world varieties–tell a story and invite an experience. You just don't get that with a bowl of chips and salsa.

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