With Christmas beckoning, it will soon be time to assemble a delicious festive cheese plate for family and friends to enjoy after Christmas dinner. So what cheeses to include? The IJ Mellis cheese shop in Aberdeen can help. Here is their top 10 for 2014:
1 Auld Reekie (smoked)
This cheese, produced on Royal Deeside using traditional methods, is smoked over whisky soaked oak shavings that creates a cheese that is firm in texture with a full rounded taste and a wide range of smoky notes to savour
2 Colston Basset Stilton (blue)
Made on a small family farm for over 100 years, this popular blue cheese is not too sharp or overpowering. Instead, it has a full-bodied flavour that is rich, creamy, mellow and savoury with a buttery texture: the aftertaste is deep, salty and has a savoury, minerally tang. Best from November to February it has become a traditional Christmas favourite. Try it with roasted mushrooms. Can be made into Stilton and Broccoli Soup
3 Brie de Meaux (soft)
Probably the strongest of all the soft white cheeses, it has a glossy pale straw interior with a characteristic rich taste of wild, smoky mushrooms and nuts but with a camembert-like-fruitiness. Try it with cranberries.
4 Golden Cross (goat’s)
The name has been inspired from a cross on the roof of a local village pub. The cheese itself has a dense, silky texture, which makes it excellent for grilling. The cheese ranges in flavour from delicate, floral and grassy to more complex and intense as it becomes denser creamier and full-flavoured with maturity.
5 Reypenaer VSOP – two-year aged gouda
The ultimate cheese – salty, tangy,
extra mature (it sheds 25% of its original weight during maturation), intensely flavoured and perfectly balanced with surprising mineral crystals and complex aromas of caramel and nuts. Enjoy with a hearty, full-bodied wine.
6 Ossau Iraty – sheep’s milk
This cheese has a sharp, buttery and intensely sweet and salty flavour with hints of olives, figs, hazelnut and
dried porcini mushrooms. (£3.10 per 100g). It is particularly good for children as they tend to like its
sweet flavour. It’s a fairly mild farmhouse cheese and isn’t as high in fat and salt content as some of the other cheeses.
7 Vacherin Mont D’or (winter soft)
This cheese is one of our popular seasonal cheeses available in the winter months. It is shaped in cloth-lined moulds then encircled with a strip of spruce bark. The spruce imparts a woody, rich flavour. When ripe, the cheese is soft, creamy and more robust and nuttier than
brie. Try with Mckenzie Savoury Biscuits.
8 Montgomery’s Cheddar (hard)
The king of cheddars – rich, sweet, fruity, nutty, beefy flavours. Sometimes reminiscent of the caramelised edge of a Sunday roast. The texture is drier than most other cheddars, with a grainy and crystalline crunch as it ages. Pairs very well with Mckenzie Oatcakes from Aberdeen.
9 Stinking Bishop – (washed rind)
Stinking Bishop is a full-fat pasteurised cow’s milk soft cheese made by Charles Martell & Son since 1972 at their Laurel Farm in Dymock, England. Milk of rare Gloucester
cattle is used to produce the cheese, though sometimes their milk is mixed with the milk of Fresian cattle. Made with vegetarian rennet, this cheese is also suitable for vegetarians. The rind is washed in perry, an alcoholic drink made with the local variety of Stinking Bishop pear, which gives the cheese its name. The alcoholic wash gives the cheese its distinctive pungent aroma and brown/pink rind colour. As a result of the natural rind, changeable hues of mould spots appear on the cheese from time to time. Try it with Peter’s Yard Swedish Crispbread.
10 Tomme au Marc de Raisin
This is a Tomme de Savoie cheese which has been matured under a thick layer of Marc grape must, the residue of the grape pressings left over from the wine-making procedure, for at least one month. The expert affineurs travel the region and hand pick the cheeses they believe to be the best to mature in this special way. The flavour is mild and earthy, while the grape must imparts a subtle fruity hint and a slight alcoholic sharpness. It goes particularly well with Stag Christmas Fruit cake, which has been specially made for eating with cheese.
A winter-warmer courtesy of the British Cheese Board
CHEDDAR, STILTON AND CARAMELISED ONION SOUP
SERVES 4
50g butter
3 medium brown or red onions, thinly sliced
1tsp sugar
2tbsp plain flour
1l reduced-salt beef or vegetable stock
8 small slices rustic bread (such as a French stick)
Freshly ground black pepper
2tbsp chopped fresh parsley
80g mature cheddar cheese, grated
80g blue stilton cheese, broken into chunks
Melt the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan and add the onions, cooking them over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the sugar and cook for another few moments to really brown them.
Stir in the flour, then add a little stock, stirring until combined. Gradually stir in the remaining stock, then bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook gently for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Preheat the grill. Toast the bread on one side only.
Season the soup with black pepper and stir in the parsley. Ladle the soup into four bowls that will withstand the heat from the grill (and check that they fit under your grill).
Float the pieces of bread on top of the soup, toasted sides down. Sprinkle the cheddar on top and add the chunks of stilton. Grill for two to three minutes until melted and bubbling. Serve at once, though take care when eating – it’s hot.