The Christmas tables are loaded during large lunches and dinners from a carousel of products where we do not want to leave anyone out. We kick off the festival with appetizers, where Iberian and seafood they tend to have the upper hand, but they are not alone.
Cheese, in any of its aspects, becomes a claim that all audiences approach. In this way, it allows us to put a bit more variety on the table, interact and also point us a medal if, as a gift, the piece that we have brought ends up raising admiration.
With moderation, but with wisdom, and knowing that we are faced with a large table where there is not only one protagonistChoosing the perfect cheese board for Christmas is not easy.
Must calculate quantities, measure the times to temper the cheese without going overboard, be aware of the moment when we are going to serve it, if we intend to make it available to everyone or distribute it on the plates and, above all, know which cheeses to choose taking into account the rest of the table’s sensitivities.
For this we have Clara Diez, owner of the Formaje cheese shop and boutique (Plaza de Chamberí, 9), which has also prepared a series of special tables for Christmas, with which we had the opportunity to share a talk during the Schweppes Selection Mixing Lab, moment when he paired his cheeses with the cocktails of the mixing master Marc Alvarez, from the Barcelona cocktail bar Sips (Carrer de Muntaner, 108).
The moment
As an aperitif, as a pre-dessert, during the meal … Check when to serve the cheese it’s not that easy. In France, the culture of serving it after a meal and serving it almost as a dessert. In Spain our way of seeing life leads us to serve it as an aperitif. So what do we do with our cheese board?
“I believe that what makes the most sense is to take it out for dessert“, considers Clara.” I always do the opposite because we do not have that so associated with cheese as a dessert but it is so fatty that it makes more sense at the end of a meal, “she explains.
The motives: “you will consume less and appreciate it more And it’s not going to mean that after the cheese you don’t go to try something else because it satisfies a lot. “Logically, the theory collides with the Christmas tables, where polvorones and other sweets are also going to land later at the end of the feast.
“There is no problem for taking it out as a starter, at the moment we take out the Iberian or seafood. Nothing happens either because cheese adapts well to all kinds of situations, “he clarifies.
As a culmination he suggests “combine it with the main dishes and that it is always in the center of the table because it is very nibble and goes well with salads or meat dishes “.
To serve or not to serve: that is the question
It depends on the volume of our table, Plated dishes can turn into hell. The distance between diners, everyone reaching the plates or, what is worse, ‘compelling’ by serving something that may not please a guest are frequent complications.
“My advice is that the cheese boards go to the middle and whole, with the knives to serve us. I understand that it is easier to pre-cut it, but if they go to the center it is more fun and allows a greater interaction with the product “, explains the co-owner of Formaje.
“If we plate them we are also forcing a diner to eat something that they may not want to eat, so it is more comfortable for them to be in the center of the table. In any case, it is also important that if we pre-cut it, let’s be careful with the timesIn any case, he recommends that “the less time they are cut, the better.”
Temper carefully but without overdoing it
Not directly from the fridge nor died of laughter at the dining room table since early morning. In the middle is the virtue of how to serve a cheese. To do this, you also have to pay attention to the characteristics of each cheese and how it will behave in the heat.
It is not the same to temper a manchego or a zamorano, who sweat a little but do not melt, what to temper a brie or a camembert, plus fluxes. Therefore, it must also be clear that certain cheeses would not behave well in that circumstance, such as mozzarella.
Measuring time is important so that it is not cold and is not appreciated in the bite and that we are not melting it at the table. “To temper it, with have it 30 minutes before at room temperature, like the kitchen in winter, enough “, says Clara.
Do not skate with the quantities and qualities
Bearing in mind that the Christmas table is going to be especially powerful forces us to do an exercise of measure in the purchase and in the selection. Although we love cheese, we must be clear that it will share poster with a lot of products as if we were at a music festival and that everyone has their space.
“For a meal where there are more products, 75 grams of cheese per person is enough”
It is frequent that we also overdo it with the entrees, which are the most difficult to quantify because we usually put them in the middle and it is more difficult to measure quantities. With the main ones, already served, such as soups, creams or roasts, it is easier to get an idea of how much we are going to have to cook.
But leaving patés, iberico, seafood or the cheese itself at discretion also represents a conflict so that we will not gorge ourselves at the beginning, something that also happens in the store.
“In a cheese board on a normal day, 100 grams per person is enough. At a dinner like Christmas Eve, there will be another type of food, 75 grams of cheese is already an amount that is very good, but if we don’t want to go overboard, calculating about 60 grams per person will be fine “, synthesizes Clara Díez.
The ideal selection
Good cheese is more expensive than bad cheese, this truism also means not being terrified by the prices per kilo of higher quality cheeses such as artisanal ones. “Let’s say that, on average, the cheeses we buy are worth about 30 euros per kilo. If we calculate them with what we are going to put at Christmas, which are those 60 or 100 grams, we find that A cheese board for six people can cost between 10 and 20 euros“, he points out.
That said, what cheeses would Clara Díez put on a Christmas dinner? “Do not pass us, but touch something of each stick. I think that a logical selection is to bet on a varied selection in typologies that everyone may like “, he claims.
“Is about think about everyone, not just what we like, but in reaching the maximum possible palates “, he believes. To do this, he indicates that it is convenient” to touch the five main sticks of the elaboration and not leave any flavor out “.
“The five types are a lactic coagulation cheese, a soft cheese (washed or moldy, as we prefer), a cooked pasta, a pressed pasta and a blue cheese”, he points out. “We can also put in an easy-to-share cheese like a Mont D’Or or a Torta del Casar “, he points out.
- Lactics: especially fresh, slightly acidic cheeses. “They are creamy and they are very easy. In this case, I recommend an Olavidia, if you can find it, or Valleoscuro, which is also from the Quesos y Besos cheese factory, or the Rouelle du Tarn, which are young and easy lactics”.
- Soft pasta: to get an idea, cheeses similar to camembert or brie. “A reblochon is very simple, or a Queixo do País, which is a cheese that we have super friendly, the height of creaminess, and that in this case goes very well. If we are going to mold, a Divirín, although it depends on the maturation. For something heavier, I would go to a Puigpedrós at the Molí de Ger cheese factory. “
- Pressed pastes: our manchegos, zamoranos or idiazábal fall into this category. “Having a classic like a manchego or a zamorano is good because someone will always like it and favor the palate of the vast majority,” he says. In his case, he suggests “the manchego from Valdivieso or the zamorano from Fariza de Sayago.”
- Cooked pasta: Here we find the great Swiss and French cheeses such as Comté, Emmental, Gruyère or Appenzeller and Etivaz. “We have Chällerhocker, an alpine cheese from the canton of St. Gallen, which is spectacular, but any quality cooked pasta works well.”
- Blue cheese: cabrales, roquefort, gamoneu, picón bejes-tresviso, valdeón … They are the most powerful of the cheeses, but there are nicer options. “For the general public I would go to a Stichelton, which is a raw milk stilton, or to Savel, which is a great discovery and one of the best cheeses in Spain.”
As for the noes, Clara also has certain options clear. “Small cheeses are not always to be trusted, which can be very intense despite their size “, he thinks. That ‘little but bully’ that can blur the evening or with” very powerful washed rinds “, where he recommends avoiding” cheeses such as casin, maroilles or époisses because they are very intense “.
“Because the lactic ones go very well in this type of tables, as they usually go by units and that offers a very wide range of possibilities. In any case, the client must be honest with the needs and “check that [echa mano de la calculadora del móvil] For 65 grams of cheese at 30 euros a kilo is less than three euros per person. With that you have a first-class cheese board for very little money. ”
Cocktails and cheese?
We can think that the world of cocktails and cheese They are light years away, but they have more in common than they seem. To do this, Clara made use of three different cheeses such as Montes de Alcalá (pressed payoya goat’s milk paste), Moluengo (lactic coagulation of goat’s milk) and Hornkäse (cooked alpine cow’s milk paste).
Marc paired the first with a Root Mule cocktail with notable presence of roots like ginger, turmeric or galangal; the second with Mill Fulls, a lactoclarified cocktail with memories of a crème brulee, and closed the proposal with Velvet, a highball cocktail with elderberry profiles and the sharp point achieved through the malic acid of the granny smith apple.
Images | Formaje / Justino Díez / Unsplash / Schweppes
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