Christmas Cheese Board

Our Christmas Eve Cheese Board, complete with a bottle of red!

Right then. After literally months of badgering me I have finally succumbed to posting on here myself. I've always eaten the cheese. I've always commented on what I liked or didn't. But I've never actually got around to writing anything. This time though I made a silly comment "No presents until I have posted something" As I stare at the shiny packages under the tree that promise so much, well, I had boxed myself in to a corner.

And what a bad time to start - a four cheese board! So here goes:

St Marcellin
We've had this before but never actually written about it. It's a French soft cheese made with cow's milk. It even comes in its own handy container that Amanda will then use to house condiments in future - practically pays for itself then! I've never had the most refined of palettes so I'll simply say it was delicious. It might be soft but there's a density to it and a lingering aftertaste that's more than pleasant - kind of nutty and earthy. Amanda claimed it tasted of "farm" whatever that means.

Vacherin Friborgeois
In the previous post Amanda talked about the most common kind of Vacherin at this time of year - the Mont d'Or. I studied medieval history though and read Malory so I always have the tendency to call it Vacherin d'Mort - probably not the most appealing name. Anyways, that was last time and this is now. We're off in Switzerland for this cheese and it's a lot firmer than its more famous cousin. There's certainly a nuttiness to the flavour profile, especially when you get to the rind. When we first started eating it we were using a cheese knife that sliced off thin slivers. Delicious. But as the feast continued and we moved on to just hacking giant chunks off, well that's when the real intensity of flavour comes out. As I'm sure you're not surprised it is a key ingredient in fondues and that makes sense, I'm sure a large melted chunk of this would be a real treat.

Brillat Savarin
Back in France now, but then when you're discussing great cheese and you live with a Francophile then how can you not be? We wanted something a little softer to try and stumbled across this one. It can be impossibly daunting at time starting at a wall of cheese which all looks delicious. Sometimes you have to roll the dice and hope you get lucky - this Christmas Eve we got lucky. Brillat Savarin is a triple cream Brie. Personally I think Brie is a little played out at times and can become rather bland and tasteless, a victim of its own success almost. This one though managed to take Brie to a different level. Rich, creamy and soft like you'd expect but with a sour aftertaste if you allow yourself a moment to actually think about the flavour before you wolf it down. Definitely a good find. To me it seems like the kind of cheese a non-cheese lover could enjoy as a gateway to something more intense and flavourful.

Crozier Blue
And when you're talking intense and flavourful you don't get much more intense in cheeseworld than with a blue. When we started off we ate the first three for a while before I cut off a slice of the Crozier. Wow! The flavour almost bashes you over the head and screams LOOK AT ME! I'M A BLUE CHEESE!!! Personally I enjoy that but after spending so long trying to get the tastebuds to recognise the subtle creamy, earthy, grassy flavours of the others the blue came as a real shock. It's a semi-soft sheep's cheese made in Ireland that's even won a World Cheese Award apparently.The same small family business makes a cow's cheese called Cashel Blue but decided to experiment with a sheep milk based variety too. I'm glad they did. Once my mouth got used to the concept of blue compared with what we'd been eating I settled right in to enjoying. Amanda's not the biggest blue fan but she picked this one out because of the creamy consistency. I liked the salty tang you expect from a blue. I almost typed that it was a good compromise but then compromise always seems to have such a negative connotation behind it - so let's just say we both enjoyed the choice, I don't think there's a higher praise you can give than that.

Now, if you don't mind after allowing it all to settle I am going to crack open a glass of port, enjoy some more of the Crozier and relax for the rest of Christmas Eve.

Vacherin du Mont d'Or

Vacherin du Mont d'Or -- can I have some bread for my cheese soup, please?

OK, this cheese is a bit of a "cult status" type cheese, and I don't want to get this wrong.  There is so much to know about this cheese, and any real cheese connoisseur will know all about it.  So I don't want to anger the cheese gods.


Before I start on my own entry, let me provide you with a link to their official website here.  


Now there are 2 types of Vacherin, French or Swiss.  The one we had was the Vacherin du Mont d'Or, which is mostly the Swiss variety, although it could also come from France.  Specifically, it is from the Jura region which spans both Switzerland and France.  Then you have other types of Vacherins depending on where they came from, like the Fribourgeois or the d'alpage.  I've had this cheese a few times before, but for Adam, it was his first.  


This is a washed rind cheese, which means that during production, it was repeatedly wiped or brushed with, or dunked in a liquid (usually alcohol).  It is a seasonal cheese because it is handmade, and it comes in a wooden case.  The Vacherin usually becomes available in September or October, and they even have a festival dedicated to it.  


Now as you can see in the picture, this cheese is very soft.  Traditionally, people serve it up warm and eat it like a fondue (it is a Swiss cheese after all!).  This cheese is generally very high in fat and melts so easily.  It's like eating clotted cream with a spoon.  It has a really earthy flavour, but so creamy and smooth.  Unlike the St. Nectaire where it tasted rather farm-y... if that makes any sense.


This is some serious cheese.  And aside from giving you the hard facts about it, all I can say to you is: get it.  Get it now before it goes out of season and you have to wait until next year.