Taste Cubed, serving it up.

Taste cubed, never in cubes.

Italy, Thank you.

I have a quiet dread of cheese cubes. I guess it is now no longer quiet, I dread cheese cubes. They are acceptable, okay forgiveable, when done as samples in stores. They are there, quickly chopped, to be popped without too much thought by shopper-gatherers.  Even writing that sentence raised some of the issues in my mind – there is a haste and a lack of thought. I wish we would taste and act more carefully.

It is lovely when someone stops after they have tried a sample and goes back to search for the label. Like a bloom’s scent or the beginning of something that turns into a conversation, inhaled or begun by chance, it redirects you and pulls you willingly, curiously towards it.

Cheese tommes with their array of rinds: from bacterium linens umber reds, bright wax wraps to mottled fuzzy grey or white bloomed skins, and with their differing shapes: thick soft huge grey guilders of curds, perfect hardcore aged Dutch suns to such planetary rings that make you think of turning cart

They look like they have been bayoneted

wheels…. Becoming generic blocks of thoughtlessness thrown into a pile. It feels like Communism of the curd and I am sure their cheese was similarly good.                                                         

I don’t particularly like cutting cheese – unless it is to open it up and to encourage others to open up to it. Different guidelines would apply to different situations and sometimes you just go with what works but, to follow, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind.

Taste Cubed  

           Temperature x Aesthetics x Form

• The longer and the larger the cheese piece, the longer the flavour will remain intact. Open sides are like pores from which their quality will seep. 
• Cheese should be served at room temperature, if you are wearing a jacket inside – this is not room temperature.
• Food has less flavour when it is cold, cheese should be taken out of chilled storage at least 30 minutes before serving. The afternoon before the intended evening is also good.  My mother puts it in the pantry and not into the refrigerator (understand, cool window sill) if there are guests over for the weekend. 
• Keep the cheese wrapped up until it is being served (and between sneaky snacks) to prevent it from drying out.
• Soft (ripe) cheese should be given a few hours out, its flavour is invested in its fat molecules. These contract when they are cold and need to relax, to bulge or run in order to release their richness. We’ll discuss ripeness on another post.
• Opening slices of and into the cheese should not be done too long before they are being served.
• When cutting cheese cut according to the shape. You might do a few guiding cuts to show your guests and to encourage them to dig in. I have found that if you are serving a perfect shape or round of camembert - someone must make the initial intrusion or no one will.

from Cheese Matters, because it does

I do not like doings pieces that are too thick, not because I am mean but because the thinner slice, smaller pieces releases the flavour more delicately - who likes thick bars of dark chocolate wedged into their mouth? Squirrels.

If you must pre-cut the cheese, because flight, picnic or antipasta security will take all of your knives, be playful with the shapes and lay them out in a way that will encourage people to think of it as a treat. The cheese began pretty, keep it so. The cheese makers went to the bother, so can we.

Finally, simply, it is it not easier to just put out the cheese at the end of a long day and an extended meal and let people help themselves?