How To Choose Christmas Cheeses
Learn what goes on a perfect cheese board with celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson.
Step 1: Prepare Your Cheese Board
Normally you’d associate Christmas dinner with hours spent slaving over the stove, but not all courses need be like that. One easy to prepare option is cheese.
Step 2: Achieve Balance
You’ve got to have a balance between the different cheeses. If you think about it, there are hundred of cheeses now but you don’t want a massive cheese board. You don’t want it hanging around too long; you want people to use it and I would always say there should be a balance between a hard cheese, a blue cheese, and a soft cheese. You really only need three cheeses.
Step 3: Prepare Cheese In Advance
The key for me is to get them out the fridge well in advance of eating them, you don’t want them fridge-cold. You’ll never develop the wonderful flavours of cheese if they’re fridge-cold. Make sure in the morning when you get up for Christmas, you get your cheese out, keep them somewhere at room temperature so they can develop those lovely flavours.
Step 4: Example Of Three Cheeses
Going back to some classics is best with a cheese board. Christmas day is that classic day isn’t it, so what better than what we’ve got here.
Looking at a perfect balance of a cheese board; you’re looking for a hard, a blue, and a creamy.
Here we got a Cerati which I discovered this year actually and I think it’s become one of my favourite cheeses. It’s a sheep’s milk cheese from the Basque country; it’s quite hard so it’s a good hard cheese for you. It’s got a lovely creaminess and I say a nuttiness to it. I think that’s a wonderful cheese.
Societe Rockfort is the king of all cheeses, that’s what they say about Rockfort. It’s that classic blue; it’s got a nice sort of saltiness to it, lovely creaminess at the same time. Beautiful blue cheese.
And of course here's the President Camembert. Well what can I say about camembert that hasn’t been said thousands of times? It’s a delicious cheese, it’s a great classic. It’s soft, I mean the British like it probably softer than the French like it. I like it when it’s almost slightly oozing. It’s got that richness and creaminess that we associate with a good soft cheese.
Those are the perfect three for me. There are obviously hundreds of cheeses to choose and they must be down to you, but those you’ll please most people.
Step 5: Eat When The Time Comes
When eating your cheese, historically the British would have it at the end of a meal. Where the French would have it before the pudding, the British would have it after the pudding.
I’m a French fan on that basis. I do think that after the main course should come the cheese board. So you’re keeping savoury with savoury.
If you go from savoury to sweet and then to back to savoury; I’m not sure the British have got it quite right there. So I like to carry on drinking my good Red Wine with the cheese. So you come from the main course, you’ve had your red wine, you still have some left, perfect with the cheese.
Step 6: Leave The Pickle
I’m not sure it's right on Christmas day after a meal to eat the cheese with pickle. I think you’re right if you’re in a country pub and you’re looking for the ploughman’s Pickle and chutneys. Indeed I make a load of them for my pubs because you’ve got lovely acidity in the chutneys plus a hint of sweetness as well. So the balance with cheese goes really well.
But I’m not sure that’d be right after a big meal.
Step 7: The Advantages Of A Christmas Cheeseboard
The advantage to having a cheese board on Christmas day is to the general public because it’s something easy to do. You can get it out earlier in the day and have it all prepared. You haven’t got to think about heating up and steaming up your pudding and things like that. This is just something that can be done ahead; you’ve got some grapes, you’ve got some celery.
But be careful of grapes and celery if you’re drinking the red wine because they can detract from the red wine; but they go really well with the port.
Don’t go with biscuits with too much flavour, I don’t want a cheese biscuit with a cheese. I want something that’s going to compliment the cheese rather than adding to the cheese .
So there you have the recipe for the perfect festive season. Free the chef from the shackles of the oven and go for a Christmas cheese board.
