Getting feedback from you helps me and other readers too! And in all of the Michelin-starred restaurants I ate at in France, the cheese course consisted only of cheese served with good bread (and wine). Depending on where they are grown, grapes can be pretty acidic—and that acidity can bring out a fair amount of bitterness when you least expect it. Do you have a per person cost based on your above tray and 2 oz cheeses per person? If you try this recipe, please rate it and leave a comment on this post. Sure. I’m so excited and the guests will not know about these boards till arrival. What to do, then, if you want to pair cheese and fruit, but have it ready to go with lots of lead time? Similarly, these Mixed Berry Cream Cheese Muffins are loaded with juicy berries of your choice, but the cheesecake-like center is a fun, tasty surprise. Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email. You have sweet and juicy against salty and savory, firm versus soft, nutty with candylike, and so on and so forth. Another way of thinking about it is to aim for a soft cheese, a hard cheese, and a crumbly cheese. Might start with 1 cup cottage cheese and 1/4 cup berries and adjust to your fullness. Awesome ideas! For only $12/month, you'll receive these great benefits to help you on your weight loss journey: This recipe has been added to your Meal Plan. But it’s what nature gives us, so we have to run with it—unless you want to eat bad fruit with your good cheese, that is. This might be personal preference, but a really full, almost overflowing board looks more appealing to me than a sparse one. In the summer, berries are an obvious choice along with stone fruits like plums or cherries. After all, we eat fig jam, cherry relish, quince paste, and the like with cheese for the same reason we eat fresh fruits with cheese: to enhance the flavors and create a perfect pairing. Apples, pears, and persimmons. Try to keep the following principles in mind when planning and arranging your fruit and cheese platter: Color contrasts like red grapes and green pears or green grapes and red pears add beauty and visual variety to your board, as do geometric shapes like triangles from cheese wedges, rectangular crackers, or round cheese wheels. I enjoy exploring the world through food, culture, and travel and sharing the adventure with mostly from-scratch, family friendly recipes that I think of as modern comfort cooking. , use the hashtag #houseofnasheats and tag me (@houseofnasheats) so I can stop by and give your post some love. What to do, then, if you want to pair cheese and fruit, but have it ready to go with lots of lead time? Joyannetta@aol.com. For the board in these pictures, I chose a spreadable Boursin garlic & herb cheese, a sweet, soft brie, and a classic sharp cheddar cut into cubes. Why, because you eat fruit with cheese. I sometimes just have cheese and crackers, but this is a way better idea! Berries are only in-season for a short period of time during the summer. We will vote on the boards. Your email address will not be published. Well, no. You can find lots of great options for large wooden cutting boards like the one my husband made for me in these photos at Target or Home Goods. So if you’re hungry for cheese knowledge, culture, pairings, recipes, and puns, this site is just what the doctor ordered. Meat? Cheese and fruit pairings also make for an easy snack, appetizer recipe, or even light dinner. The PhCheese believes that good cheese should be accessible to everyone–and knowledge is power. But if you want to wow your friends and family with some winning combos, you are going to need to put in a little work (and maybe some pre-party experimentation, oh darn). When deciding what to include on my fruit and cheese board, I like to think about taste, texture, and appearance and let that be my guide. Why is Stilton and fresh pear a classic fall-and-winter pairing? Why? An overflowing fruit and cheese platter looks more enticing. This all simply goes to show that we don’t pair fruit and cheese with each other out of any deep-seated traditions that dictate there must always be fruit when cheese is eaten.