Alena Gianna Douglas, head cheesemonger at Provisions specialty food and wine store in Northampton, knows that the world of cheese can be intimidating.
But it doesn’t have to be like that, Douglas explained.
There’s a place for every cheese — except Kraft singles, she said, smiling.
After earning a degree in Italian from Mount Holyoke College three years ago, Douglas says she got a job at Provisions the week after her graduation ceremony without knowing what she was getting herself into. Soon, she discovered the nuanced flavors of artisan-made craft cheeses.
“I fell in love with cheese, because it’s the richest world,” Douglas said. These days, she’s in charge of keeping the Crafts Avenue store’s cheese stock fresh, training new cheesemongers, and putting together made-to-order cheese platters, she explained, standing behind the counter slicing blocks of French comté into small wedges.
And while Douglas — who made it to the top ten in The Cheesemonger Invitational’s annual competition in New York City — treats the endeavor as an art form, there are a few basic principles that can help anyone put together a great cheese platter.
The first question that anyone should ask before buying cheeses is how many people they’re expecting, says Rob Schark, cheesemonger at River Valley Market in Northampton. Schark has worked with cheeses for 20 years and received formal cheesemonger training from the University of Wisconsin. For two to three people, he recommended at least three cheeses. For four to six, four to five cheeses.
For seven to ten people, Schark suggested buying six kinds of cheese.
As a loose rule of thumb to make sure there’s enough variety, Douglas suggested selecting cheeses from soft to hard in texture and from mild to more intense in flavor.
If he were to make a three-cheese plate, Schark says he’d choose Fromager d’Affinois, a soft French double-cream cheese, plus a semi-soft Manchego goat cheese from Spain and a Grafton Village 2-year Aged Cheddar from Vermont as a third option “because it’s local and it tastes great. … it’s nice and sharp.”
Meanwhile, Douglas says she’d start with the Vermont-based Jasper Hill Creamery’s Moses Sleeper brie-style cheese, which is soft and mild in flavor with a gooey core. Then she’d add a harder and richer Alpine style cheese, which she enjoys cutting in creative ways. “You can have such a fun time with shapes because it’s easily malleable, so you can make gorgeous triangles and little squares, and lay them on in a Jenga type thing,” Douglas said.
For a third cheese, “I might end with a fudgy introductory blue. Something that’s not incredibly briny,” she said. “There’s a beautiful world of blue (cheese) — ones that are buttery, buttery, buttery, and yeasty and lemony — very easy, and then ones that are very briny and assertive. … You don’t need it to be the most intense finish.”
Selecting other foods like nuts or fruit preserves to serve alongside the cheese is the next step.
For example, Douglas says that Manchego goes well with quince paste, which is a sweet and thick jelly made of the pulp of the quince fruit.
Blue cheeses often pair well with honey, chocolate, sweet nuts, or dark fruit preserves. Douglas recommends serving an acidic cheddar with a rich fennel salami.
Douglas says she still remembers the first time she discovered a great pairing — the Moses Sleeper brie-style cheese with a summer peach and ginger jam from Blake Hill Preserves in Vermont.
“A really good pairing is when things change, and there’s this third flavor that’s brought forward. That’s a plus-one pairing,” she said. “We carry it always because it’s one of the most slam dunk pairings. It’s gorgeous.”
When placing the cheeses onto a platter, Douglas advises starting with the largest wedges.
Put cheeses that are intentionally paired with other food items like honey or fruit preserves close together, and then add pallet cleansers like different types of bread, olives, or pickled vegetables.
To change things up, Douglas suggested including smoked or cured fish, mussels or “a really good potato chip” in-between the cheeses.
For hard and semi-soft cheeses, Douglas said cutting them beforehand is a good idea so that guests don’t have to wrestle with a knife. She leaves soft, spreadable varieties intact.
She also seeks out colorful accoutrements.
“If I have Turkish apricot, for instance, I would put that next to a bright white goat cheese. You want to make the colors pop,” Douglas said.
Schark says he sometimes places the cheeses on top of “a bed of kale or add a few sprigs of fresh rosemary.” Fresh or dried fruit such as clementines or strawberries are always welcome.
“So much of the visual aspect is beautiful colors and shapes,” he said.
“A fine pairing is when the drink doesn’t drown out the cheese or vice versa, and it’s a nice marriage,” said Douglas, citing how well matched a creamy goat cheese can be with light-bodied floral white wines.
Pairing cheese with beer is another interesting way to bring out unique flavors. Douglas says she especially enjoys pairing beer because “there’s more (textural) variety in the body” between a thick porter, say, and a pale ale.
Most of all, Schark says the goal of pairing cheeses should be to have fun, experiment and try things that are delicious.
“There’s really nothing to be intimidated about making a good cheese platter,” he said. “There’s not a right way or a wrong way.”