Cheese can be used not only as a component to various dishes and snacks, but also served as an independent dish in the form of a cheese plate. It is known that a cheese platter must be shaped according to certain rules.
True connoisseurs of cheese argue that the composition of a cheese plate should not contain two or three types of cheese, but much more. This variety will allow your guests to enjoy exactly the cheese that they like best.
Cheese plate composition
The most suitable varieties include:
- pasty goat or cow cheese varieties;
- cheeses with blue mold;
- soft cheeses with a white crust;
- varieties with smoked flavor and seasoned varieties;
- hard cheese varieties;
- varieties of semi-soft cow cheese.
Basic rules for decorating a cheese plate
It is best to decorate a cheese plate on a special decorative board, which can be marble, granite or wood. The cheese should be cut into large enough pieces. This will exclude it from chapping and drying. True, here you need to be guided by certain rules. If the cheese plate is served as a dessert, then the size of the pieces should not exceed fifty grams. If this is a main course, then the pieces should be two hundred grams each.
Different types of cheese should never be mixed. They should be laid out in separate portions clockwise. At the same time, the taste should gradually increase from the most delicate to the spicy and piquant. If you imagine that the plate is a dial, you should put pieces of the most delicate and soft cheese at six o'clock. Further clockwise, the flavor should become more intense. It turns out that the spicy cheese will be the last on the cheese plate.
The spaces between the cheese pieces can be filled with mint leaves or small pieces of fruit. The cheese plate is made out about an hour before the table is served, so that the taste of the cheese is fully manifested. It is customary to put pear slices and grape berries next to soft cheeses. Almonds and walnuts are best combined with fatty cheeses. For example, avocados are great for softening the taste of blue cheese. Closer to hard varieties, pineapple and kiwi slices are usually laid out. You can diversify the taste of the cheese plate with jams, rolls, crackers or baguettes with herbs.
Several knives must be served with the cheese plate. Do not forget about a special knife with a forked blade at the end for soft types of cheese. This is very important, because it is customary to eat cheese with a fork, after cutting off small pieces with a knife.
