Do you like cheese? Who doesn’t? There’s a cheese for everyone.
There’s breakfast cheese, cheese as a snack, soft cheese, hard cheese, cheese in cheesy dishes and of course the cheese platter, which is all about the cheese.
But what if you really, really like cheese, but you want to take it to the next level?
Well, we’re here to help.
Find a cheesy friend
Your first step is to find a good cheese retailer. A specialist cheesemonger is the best, but they are few and far between unless you live in a pretty fancy town or suburb.
Also good is going to the source at farmers’ markets or farm shops.
But plenty of delis or specialty food retail outlets will also have a swanky cheese section and it behoves you to seek them out.
However, it’s not just about the cheese on offer, you also need someone behind the counter who knows their cheese.
Not only will a good sales assistant or cheesemonger find the cheese you are looking for, they can also give good advice about other cheeses, offer substitute cheese if you can’t find what you are looking for or just put together a snazzy cheeseboard.
Will any of it be cheap? No. But remember, you love cheese. And the depth of taste means a little goes a long way. Not like that block of generic supermarket cheese you cheerfully grate over everything.
They will also provide advice on storage and ‘use-by’ dates.
A cut above
You’ve got it home. What’s next? Cutting it up and eating it, I hope, but that’s not as simple as it sounds.
First, you need to bring it to room temperature before you serve it. Cheese flavours develop best when out of refrigeration, so remember to take it out of cool storage about an hour before you are going to serve it.
If you thought just going at it with a sharpish knife was good enough when cutting, well, oh boy, read on for a humbling experience.
Frankly, there is not enough space here to go into all the ‘correct’ ways to cut cheese, simply because there are so many types of cheese. Also, what you are using the cheese for also counts. For example, you can cut mozzarella into rounds for a salad or grate it for a pasta dish.
So here is a rough guide.
For big wheels of cheese, cut from the middle out for a wedge. Depending on the type of cheese you can either cut off diagonal slices (hard cheese) or just keep cutting it into smaller wedges (small wheels, and/or soft cheese).
Square block cheese is the easiest, just slice off as per your preference or what a recipe advises. Same for log cheese.
You can also use a wire cheese cutter for easy cutting, microplane for thin slices or specialty cheese knife if your cheese requires it, for example, to cut chunks off a wheel of hard cheese.
Cheese knives can also look a bit special on a cheeseboard to impress people. Every bit helps.
Watch this great video for tips. Fair warning, it’s 42 minutes long.
If in doubt, once again consult your cheesemonger.
Stored a-whey
If there is any leftover cheese you need to store – what a laugh, like leftover wine – wrap it in either a cloth, waxed cloth or cheese paper.
Cheese does best when it’s not allowed to dry out but can also ‘breathe’, so avoid sealing it in plastic containers or cling wrap.
And it’s best stored in the crisper, not the cheese drawer in your fridge. Why you ask? Well, the crisper is better designed to keep in moisture, whereas the cheese section is just a bit of the fridge for dairy in general.
Some cheese comes with mould – blue cheese for a case in point – but some develop mould when they shouldn’t. If it’s a hard cheese, just do like your nanna did and cut it off. If it’s a soft cheese, I’m afraid the party is over and it’s time to chuck it out.
The hard cheese will keep mould spores pretty well isolated, but mould spores easily penetrate soft cheese, so if it looks a bit dodgy it’s time to go.
What’s your favourite cheese? Has that changed from when you were a kid? Why not share your opinion in the comments section below?
Also read: Cheese and Chive Biscuits
