French cheese plate for dessert

We are used to eating cheese as a snack, before serving the main course. However, in the Mediterranean countries (France, Italy and Spain) this product is offered to guests after a meal. When everyone is already satisfied and a little rested from eating, you can start changing the dishes and serve sweet snacks in the form of fruits, jams, and a wooden plate on which to lay out various refined sour-milk products. This dessert in France is called - "Cheese plate", however, it should be remembered that in the best houses of Paris, there is still a wooden (marble or granite) plate.

It is necessary to approach responsibly to the choice of such a plate. Cheeses, as a rule, do not buy a week, but a day before the proposed meal. Again, they can not be removed from the refrigerator and immediately served on the table: the sour milk product should warm to room temperature, otherwise the guests will not enjoy the full flavor and aroma. Necessarily need to think over the design of snacks: the board should be without any decorations, because the main thing here is the cheeses themselves. Nearby you need to put a few jams (at least two - sour and sweet, for example, cranberry and fig), a fruit bowl, among which is desirable grapes, a vase with dried fruits or nuts and a separate breadbox with a crispy cut baguette. The latter can be replaced with a cracker, but without additional taste.

What should a cheese plate consist of? Its composition should be varied. It's not about how many types of products you put on it, but how to combine the varieties with each other. In addition, guests should have a choice - someone does not like goat "fromazh", and someone does not tolerate cheese with mold. The board should please not only the stomach, but the eye: in the Put a large piece (you can have a round camembert), and on the edges - smaller ones.

Even the scantiest cheese plate should contain products made from cow, sheep and goat milk. The same applies to the consistency of fermented milk products: fresh, soft, semi-soft, hard. However, there is a very strict rule: cheeses are laid out clockwise - from the most delicate, curd varieties to the most sharp and seasoned, spicy. After all, guests are not obliged in appearance to determine where a product is, and they will immediately understand.

What should an ideal, festive cheese plate contain? Assorted as a fresh curd, take the "Ricotta", supplement it with a seasoned fresh "Clochette" or "Valensay". Must be soft "Camembert" or "Bree", semi-soft cow foods, "blue" or "green" ("Roquefort", "Gorgonzola" or others), solid (Grana Padano, Emmental, Cheddar). In the center, you can put some specific specimen - for example, with herbs, which has an additional taste. To please the adherents of Russian classics, you can also put the usual, well-known from childhood brand: "Estonian", "Swiss", etc. They should not touch each other, as gentle varieties absorb the smells of piquant species.

Cheese plate should be designed for the number of trapezed, otherwise guests will hesitate to take chunks. Proceed from fifty grams to one eater. To the board, feed a special knife, at the end of which there are bifurcating denticles. If you do not have such a knife, you can do with a simple knife and dessert fork. Served cheese for wine, but you can also cognac. Begin to try them should be the same as wine - on the increasing. If you first try a spicy variety, then soft varieties seem tasteless to you.