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Cheese for Your
Party
Written by: Frances
Cardullo
Cheese is the quintessential party food. Here are some
reasons why:
1. Most people like cheese and are immediately drawn
to it at a buffet table. It is a welcome and familiar sight. For this
reason, unless you are entertaining a particularly cheesey or foodie crowd,
avoid cheeses that are too strong, smelly, or assertive.
2. Cheese requires very little preparation time or
expertise. Assuming one is not starting with large, whole wheels, the
cheeses likely need only be unwrapped and placed with some thought to
composition on a table or platter, and surrounded by various condiments,
bread, crackers, and so on.
3. Cheese goes with an astonishing array of
foods, from deli meats and roasts to salads, antipasto assortments, and
crudité, as well as a host of condiments like chutney, preserves, mustard,
pickles, and olives, to name a few.
4. Cheese marries well with all sorts of
beverages, such as wine, beer, cider, cocktails, or non-alcoholic fruit
drinks. In fact, about the only beverage that simply doesn't pair well with
cheese is plain water. In a pinch, choose sparkling water.
5. If all those weren't enough reasons to love
cheese at a party, consider also that cheese is perfectly happy sitting out
for hours, with little or no danger of going bad or spoiling, unlike, say,
that salmon mousse you're famous for. The only real problem in serving
cheese at a party is that too many otherwise well-meaning hosts due to lack
of knowledge or lack of a good cheese-monger, buy boring cheese.
The cheese should be the focus, or the star of the
buffet table, surrounded by all kinds of complementary foods, condiments,
and fruit and nuts. All of these other foods will only serve to enhance the
cheese selection, will make the table appear more festive, and will help
make a meal of the offerings.
Four selections is a good place to start when planning
a cheese arrangement whether one is entertaining eight or 80. Of course, the
larger the group, the larger the amount of cheese you will need, but four
cheeses can still suffice. Unless you are conducting a cheese tasting, four
cheeses create a nice range of textures and styles without overwhelming
anyone's palate. For example, you could offer a soft-ripened cheese (Brie,
Camembert); a firm cheese (Cheddar, Comté); a soft, spreadable variety, such
as a fresh goat cheese; or a fromage fort and a blue cheese. The
choices can vary depending on one's preferences, of course, and the count
can be cut to three or expanded to five without committing any grave error
just so long as the selection is an intelligent one that offers a range of
flavors, textures, shapes, and sizes. In other words, a comparative tasting
of several farmhouse Cheddars might be an interesting exercise in cheese
analysis, but in most cases, that is not what a party is about.
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