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From January to November, the cheese shop is a charming curiosity, one of the few places where you can count on a conversation while you shop. In December, however, the customer volume – and stress level – of an Ikea canteen on a public holiday. A good cheesemaker will still give you time to procrastinate on stichelton versus stilton. But it helps to go prepared.
Jeremy Lee is chef-owner of Where are you going? restaurant, the seat of Soho’s seasonal bonhomie and a short walk from Neal’s Yard Dairy in Covent Garden. Claiming that he is currently working on a book of cheese recipes, he joined me for a lengthy consultation with cheese maker Orla Jackson.
Jeremy Lee: What’s endlessly fascinating about cheese is that it used to be just “cheddar or stilton?” and now there’s this incredible array. But that can make the prospect of a trip to the cheesemonger slightly overwhelming.
Orla Jackson: This can be intimidating. And people don’t know how much to buy, because they are used to buying fixed portions in stores.
Harriet Fitch Little: Where to start when it comes to quantity?
Olympic Games: It depends on the number of people and whether the cheese board is your main meal or after dinner. If it’s for after dinner, around 100g to 150g per person. If you plan to eat it for a few nights, simply multiply that number per night.
J.L.: You’re stuck at home for a week between Christmas and New Year, and there’s a craving to fill people with excess. But what you don’t want is cheese that goes in and out every night like a violinist’s elbow, as well as a salad that never gets eaten.
Olympic Games: Exactly. If you take the cheese out of the refrigerator and let it warm to room temperature (which is where you should eat it), then put it back in the refrigerator, it will start to change more quickly. So: store cheese in the fruit and vegetable section of the refrigerator, and keep it well wrapped. Then remove the slice you plan to eat on a given night. This way it will still be in its best condition at the end of the week. Or take out one cheese per evening.
J.L.: This is a really good idea with something like stilton on Christmas Day, because it’s a great tradition of course – and it’s so overwhelming with other flavors.
HFL: Why do blue cheeses excel in winter?
Olympic Games: It’s about the season. Stilton and stichelton are six to eight months old by the time they are sold, so they are made with milk from May and June, when the cows are eating grass and are really happy outside.
J.L.: So it always reminds me of pasture.
HFL: When should you buy cheese for Christmas?
Olympic Games: The cheese doesn’t exactly disappear, but it lasts for 10 days before it starts to change. Hard cheeses and blue cheeses keep a little longer. What you sometimes notice is blue and white mold on the surface of a hard cheese, but you can scrape it off.
HFL: What is the etiquette for cutting cheese?
J.L.: If they are cut into wedges, like mini flat irons, the idea is to maintain the shape of the wedge. So you could put the cheese on the side and then encourage people to take slices of it to get triangular pieces.
Olympic Games: Exactly. This will give you the taste of cheese all the way through each slice, from the center to the crust. You should not cut off the nose of the cheese, the skinny and pointed end.
HFL: What are some basic principles you could use to organize a cheese board?
Olympic Games: Start with what you really like and build around that. A classic combination would be a hard cheese, a soft cheese and a blue cheese. We often say: buy bigger pieces and fewer types.
J.L.: I would like goat’s milk, sheep’s milk and cow’s milk. And maybe we could do a British Isles cheese board. This gives me four cheeses with a joker.
Olympic Games: Some people say it’s bad luck to buy cheese in even numbers. . .
J.L.: We’ll have to go for five then. (Editor’s note: he went there for seven.)
Jérémie’s cheese platter
From left to right
Burned
A semi-soft cow’s milk cheese from Cork, Ireland
Little Rollright
A soft cow’s milk cheese from Gloucestershire, England
Hafod
A cheddar from Ceredigion, Wales
Appleby Cheshire
A hard cow’s milk cheese from Shropshire, England
Sometimes with us
A hard sheep’s milk cheese from Lanarkshire, Scotland
Black Frame
A goat’s cheese from Lanarkshire, Scotland
Your tease
A blue cheese from Nottinghamshire, England
