How to create a great Christmas cheeseboard

The question I’m often asked at this time of year is what makes the perfect Christmas cheeseboard. It’s as difficult a question as what makes the perfect Christmas lunch.

If you like - or your family expect - roast turkey and Christmas pudding that’s the perfect lunch for you. If you don’t it may be something quite different.

The theory behind a cheeseboard is to offer cheeses of different textures, flavours and shapes so that it looks attractive, includes a variety of tastes and everyone can find a cheese they like. These are the cheeses and styles that I would go for - leaving out stinky French cheeses which are best left to consenting adults ;-)

1) Stilton. In Britain this is the quintessential Christmas cheese and to be honest it’s hard to better it. The only cheese that arguably has the edge is Stichelton which is made to the same recipe but from raw milk (all Stilton these days is pasteurised) it’s slightly stronger than Stilton - a great blue cheese in my opinion. Try it with sloe gin, a delicious alternative to port

8 great drinks to match with Stilton

2) A good cheddar has a lot going for it. Most people like cheddar and you can always use it for cooking afterwards. The only issue is how strong it should be - some of the artisanal cheddars like Keen’s can be pretty funky though I do like a good Montgomery and my new favourite, Trethowan Brothers’ Pitchfork.

The best wine pairings for cheddar cheese

3) A semi-soft white-rinded cheese such as Brie or Camembert
Another popular choice but one that can cause trouble if you allow it to get overripe - i.e. at the stage where it’s virtually running off the cheeseboard a) because it won’t last very long and b) may well ruin whatever red you’re drinking with it. Try a similar English cheese such as a Tunworth or Baron Bigod.

Six of the best pairings for brie

4) A goats’ cheese
Not everyone likes goats cheese but it’s so versatile and, if you buy a young cheese, not particularly ‘goaty’. You can also use it to spread on crackers for a between blow-outs snack or to make a quick starter salad with some beets and leaves. And it goes with most dry wines (particularly with crisp whites like sauvignon blanc)

Top wine pairings with goat cheese

5) A sheep cheese
I like a hard sheep cheese on a cheeseboard, both because it’s the best type of cheese to match with a good red wine and because it means you have something to offer any guests who are dairy-intolerant. Good examples are Berkswell, aged Pecorino and Manchego (though try and find a matured version - supermarket Manchego can be bland) Also useful for rustling up some impromptu tapas with a few almonds, olives and slices of chorizo.

The best wine matches for sheep cheeses

Stand-alone cheeses
There’s nothing wrong with having one impressive cheese rather than a whole board of them. Stilton and cheddar could both perform this role but I quite like to offer something a bit unusual like a Vacherin Mont d’Or (which you can also bake in its box and serve hot like a fondue) or an aged Gouda. Deep orange Mimolette also looks wonderfully festive on a board decorated with apricots, figs and dates.

The best wine pairings for Vacherin Mont d’Or

For more festive inspiration and other cheeseboard ideas see my book Fiona Beckett’s Cheese Course.

Photo © Tatyana Berkovich at shutterstock.com

Cheese and Pickles: Take your cheese board to the next level with homemade pickles

When we think about what to put with a cheese board, we often turn to chutneys, artisan crackers, and maybe some fresh fruits but you can make your cheese board extra special and even more interesting with homemade pickles.

Monica Shaw, the writer and food producer behind Eat Sleep Wild, offers some tips as well as a recipe for spiced blackberry pickles that you can make with foraged blackberries.

“Have pickles will travel. I’ve been on the road most of this summer, travelling through Scotland and Wales, exploring the outdoors, camping, hiking, and researching potential areas for my business’s future HQ. I’ve also been meeting up with other foodie folks I know – it seems these days we’re all over the country, and it’s such a treat be able to finally hit the road and reunite in person. And so it was that I arranged a stopover at Kavey (of Kavey Eats) and her husband Pete who’ve set up an awesome home and Airbnb near Abergavenny.

When I asked Kavey what I should bring she asked “what have you been pickling lately?” Music to my ears. I have long been captivated by various methods of food preservation – fermenting, canning, and dehydrating to name just a few things. However pickling has been my mainstay, and the technique I come to time and time again for preserving the gluts (usually vast quantities of foraged food I find, but also things I’ve grown in my garden, or can get a deal on in the grocery store).

Unlike chutneys, which are decidedly sweet, pickles tend to have a greater dimension of sour, and are the perfect compliment to cheese (not to mention other savoury foods, especially barbecue, burgers, or hot dogs).

On this occasion, Kavey had curated a selection of Welsh cheeses so the pickle question was appropriate. I don’t think she was expecting I’d arrive in my van with quite this many homemade pickles on board:

1. Chicago-style giardiniera, which literally translates to “vegetables under vinegar” and is often made using whatever vegetables happen to be in abundance in the moment.
2. Zydeco beans – crispy runner beans pickled in a garlicky brine
3. Pickled wild garlic bulbs – these are particularly great with charcuterie
4. Pear aigre doux, a sweet and sour pickle flecked with fresh vanilla and peppercorns
5. Raspberry & cranberry jam – the only non pickle, but fantastic with cheese!
6. Pickled blackberries, the star of the pickle show – you can find the recipe below

We were lucky to have some amazing cheeses from the Welsh Cheese Company on our cheese board - Kavey had been working with them to source cheeses for a private tasting event, and I was grateful to be on the receiving end of a sampler. We all agreed that the pickles took the whole cheese board experience to the next level, with the pickled blackberries being the outstanding winner, pairing particularly well with soft goat cheeses.

Pickling may sound like a dark art – and indeed many pickles involve a multistep process including brining and ageing. However there are plenty of quick pickles you can make that can be eaten almost straight away (most pickles benefit from at least a day or two of resting to let the flavours come together). Zuni café’s zucchini pickles come to mind, particularly for those of you experiencing a glut of courgettes (it also works with marrows). Or get stuck into any one of these fantastic books on pickling:

• The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich
• Salt Sugar Smoke by Diana Henry
• Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry by Cathy Barrow
• The Preservation Kitchen by Paul Virant

A great pickle to make in late summer / early autumn is these pickled blackberries, particularly if you have wild brambles growing nearby (it works with store-bought blackberries, too, but it’s way more rewarding when you can pick your own). I love these pickles with soft goat and sheep cheeses, but they’re also great with venison, or even on top of ice cream.

Pickled Blackberries

Ingredients

• 500ml blackberries
• 250ml white vinegar
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp allspices
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 pinch ground mace
• 250 grams sugar

Instructions

1. Soak the blackberries in vinegar overnight with all the spices, but keep back the sugar.
2. The next day, strain the spiced vinegar into a saucepan, and put the blackberries into a large clean jar.
3. Add the sugar to the vinegar and slowly bring the mixture to the boil. Stir frequently so that the sugar dissolves. Continue to simmer until the liquid is syrupy and has reduced slightly.
4. Pour the hot syrup over the blackberries and seal.”

Photo © Monica Shaw

The best wines (and other drinks) to pair with a cheeseboard

Advertising feature: What wine would you pair with a cheeseboard? Red, I’m guessing, or maybe a port? But stop for a minute and think because it’s not just one cheese we’re talking about but three or four at least, which may range from a delicate goats cheese to a pokey blue.

So, assuming you’re not going to pour a different drink with each cheese, what do you do, especially If you’re a cheeselover? While bland supermarket cheeses cause few problems for wine (apart from being a bit boring), flavoursome farmhouse cheesescan strip the flavour out of them. But there are ways round it . . .

I’ve been helping Pipers Farm match drinks to their cheese boxes and have been drawing on the natural wines and ciders they stock, many of them from fellow West Country producers. Their cheeses also come from some of the UK’s best artisan cheesemakers upholding Pipers' mission to produce wholesome natural food that has been grown with respect for nature

So where should you kick off?

Red wines that go well with cheese

Let’s start with red wine as it’s the drink most people instinctively turn to with cheese. I look for ones that are soft, ripe and mellow, without powerful angular tannins that will clash with stronger cheeses. Rioja is a reliable go-to as are younger Spanish reds such as the Gran Cerdo I’ve picked to go with the Pipers Farm Big Cheeseboard Box which includes one of my FAVOURITE cheeses Baron Bigod or the attractive, easygoing French malbec I’ve chosen with the Cheese Feast Box which includes another of my great favourites, Tunworth. What I wouldn’t go for are fragile older wines that you’ve been hanging onto for a while. The French tend to think that you should serve your best red wine with the cheese but unless it’s a bottle you’ve already opened I tend to disagree. (Serve it with meat or game or, if you’re a vegetarian, a mushroom or pulse-based dish.)

But why not white wine?

Why indeed! Think of the fruit flavours you find in white wine especially orchard fruits like applea and pears. Do they go with cheese? Of course they do so why on earth shouldn’t you drink white wine with your cheeseboard? There’s one combination - goats cheese and sauvignon blanc - that works especially well but honestly white wine can work with cheddar too (try it with chardonnay) as well as other hard British territorial cheeses such as Caerphilly, Cheshire and Single and Double Gloucester. Or even with soft cheeses like Bix and St Jude (I’ve suggested the Bergecrac Blanc, a deliciously soft, appley blend of sauvignon and semillon with the Cheese Box for Two which should make you white wine lovers happy.

And let’s hear it for cider!

As anyone who’s ordered a ploughman’s will know beer is great with cheese but cider is arguably even better. Same logic as white wine above - we’re obviously talking apples again - but those of you who don’t regard it as a serious drink should think again.

There’s a brilliant new generation of artisanal British ciders that deserve a place on your dinner table not least cos they’re handsomely packaged in full-sized bottles. They’re also better than wine at taking any accompanying chutneys and pickles in their stride - and lower in alcohol too. Try the Wilding Ditcheat Hill cider and Pilton In Touch keeved cider I’ve recommended with the Cheese Feast and Big Cheeseboard boxes and see if you’re not converted!

Are there alternatives to port with cheese?

Most of us love a glass of port with our Stilton at Christmas but if you’re not a fan is there an alternative? You’d probably expect me to say yes and I won’t disappoint you! We’re talking apples (again. I know but we really underrate them) but this time in sweet drinks. Ice ciders and apple-based liqueurs work really well with stronger washed-rind cheeses and blues in a similar way to port. Try the Somerset Cider Brandy Co’s Kingston Black which I’ve recommended as a late night treat with the Cheese Box for two. I reckon it tastes like a liquid tarte tatin. Who could resist that?

This is an advertising feature in collaboration with Pipers Farm. If you’d like to order any of the cheese boxes, drinks or other products from their website they’ve offered a £10 discount on any order that is placed by November 14th 2021 if you use the code FIONA at the checkout. UK-based orders and over 18s only I’m afraid.