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Cheese Plate Champion

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Cheese Plate Champion

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Feb 11, 2018 2:14 am

Apparently cheesemongers hold cheese plate arranging championships
The cheese plates are stunning. The link below is to a whole article about them, which is worth a look, loads of photos and a video which is interesting, I hadn't worked out that "plates" (actually a lazy Susan) were about 80 - 90 cm across until I saw that

I have some reservations. Most of the plates contain very little cheese compared to the other items, and some of the items are just odd (raspberry jam?). I have no idea at what kind of social occasion you'd serve one - in place of canapes? On a luncheon buffet? At a wine and cheese tasting? Not even mentioned inthe text I don't think. It would look a mess after two people had helped themselves. And mixing meat, cheese and nuts all together might mean some people can't eat from it

Article
https://www.saveur.com/build-a-better-cheese-plate#page-2

A cheese plate

Image

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby mark111757 » Sun Feb 11, 2018 2:32 am

Here is some of what one supermarket chain offers


Screenshot_2018-02-10-19-28-05.png
Screenshot_2018-02-10-19-28-05.png (409 KiB) Viewed 2776 times



80 to 90cm figure out to 32 to 36".....that is alot of cheese!!!

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby karadekoolaid » Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:12 am

Blimey!
Lots of stuff, not enough cheese!

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby Alexandria » Sun Feb 11, 2018 12:08 pm

We eat cheese as a "dessert course" and the norm is 7 or 8 varieties served on a slate board ..

The plating presentation is extraordinarily exceptional however, there is far too little cheese for us, as we are "cheese a hol ics " ..

We serve,

1 fresh goat cheese
1 semi cured goat cheese
1 cured goat cheese aged in Rosemary from Cadiz, Andalusia ..
1 cow variety such as brie or similar
1 blue French
1 blue Italian
1 blue Spanish cured and wrapped in leaves and stored in caves, such as Picón or Cabrales ..
1 cured or aged sheep variety ( Manchego or Pecorino Sardo from Sardegna or Sardinia )

On another slate serving board, we place grissini bread sticks and a wide variety of crisp crackers, a rustic whole mill or whole wheat type baguette with knife and some fresh seasonal fruit and yes, fresh rasberry preserves with pair marvelously with fresh cheeses and creamy bloomy rind cheeses such as brie ..


Nice post Sue ..

Have a nice day .. :thumbsup
Barcelona, soulful & spirited, filled with fine art, amazing architecture, profoundly steeped in culture & history, and it engages all your senses, and food fancies.

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby Joanbunting » Sun Feb 11, 2018 12:48 pm

It lo but I'm afraid iooks like a really nice nibbles plate Sue but abolsutely not a cheese platter. It would be great for a drinks party.

We nealry always serve cheese for guests and we often have it rather than a dessert.

I like to keep things simple though have been known to serve just one perfect cheese with an appropriate wine. mainly because different cheeses need different wines.
So for example I might serve 3 or 4 local gaot cheeses of varying maturities along with some crisp white wine and possible some quince conserve or fresh grapes in season on the side.

Most English and the harder French ones seem better suited to a good red of the Bordeaux type.

Who wants anything more than a beautiful chunk or Stilton with some walnuts bath Oliver biscuits and a glass of vintage port ?

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:59 pm

That's why I was a liitle confused about when to serve

What everyone is describing is what I would call a cheese board or a cheese course, anything from one to many cheeses, with one or two accompaniments, in the UK with crackers of course, but certainly served as part of a meal.

These wouldn't work as a cheese course, the salami would be wrong for a start, and while they initially look pretty I think they'd be an unholy mess five minutes into a drinks party. I might use a few of the ideas for presenting nibbles but I'll continue to keep meat and cheese separate

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby jeral » Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:19 pm

Definitely more a work of art than one for serviceability or function - and inadequate cheese to "bits" ratio. I don't even know how a serving person would serve from such a platter TBH.

Mind you, i wouldn't fancy packing up left over cheese from a board after it'd been out sweating and if all and sundry could handle it, drop dandruff etc on it. The less on the board the better ;)

Was cheese originally a fourth course, or more a supper snack for menfolk who repaired to the drawing room with the port?

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:22 pm

I don't think food, other than perhaps nuts and similar little nibbles, is served with port in a formal meal

A formal meal in the UK has (since we started serving each dish as a course and not plonking them all on the table) is

Hors d'oeuvre
Soup
Fish (or a light dish such as an omelette or souffle)
Main course (meat)
(Salad)
Dessert
Cheese or savoury

There are historic and regional variations on this template - Americans serve salad as a separate course before the main course, the French sometimes serve it with the cheese, (hence my parentheses)
The French serve the cheese before the dessert

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby Amyw » Sun Feb 11, 2018 11:36 pm

They are absolutely stunning and clearly designed for the Insta likes. I think maybe for a casual lunch, where you still want everyone to go wow they’d be nice

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby Joanbunting » Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:58 am

Sue when we had our special meal chez George Blanc in October that came with a wine for each course we were servied a lovely tawny port with the final chocolate dessert. It went beautifully.

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Re: Cheese Plate Champion

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Feb 12, 2018 5:25 pm

Yes, but that's a bit different from serving cheese or other food with the port the gents drink after the ladies have retired to the drawing room, which is what I understood jeral to mean

Going to visit the Douro early autumn, looking forward to port of all hues, especially some white port which is nearly always good in Portugal and undrinkable elsewhere in my experience, I do like it as an aperitif

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