• November 30, 2021

    A Dozen Remarkable Cheeses for the Holidays

    At DeLaurenti, we have so many unique and delicious cheeses that selecting our 12 Days of Cheese to celebrate the holidays was hard, but we think you’ll love this list! From soft to hard, creamy to crumbly, delicate to piquant, these singular cheeses cover a range of styles and flavors from the significant cheesemaking regions of the world. Read on for descriptions and suggested pairings that will help you plan your holiday gatherings!

    Fougerus – This soft, handmade French brie gets its name from the fern fronds that decorate the bloomy rind. The mold-ripened cheese is made with cow’s milk sourced from local farms in the Seine-et-Marne region south of Paris. The rich cheese has a creamy texture and a delicate flavor.

    Pairing: Champagne, Cotes du Rhone, crusty bread, crisp pears

    Stilton – Colston Bassett, founded in 1913 and one of the smallest Stilton dairies in the UK, makes this fantastic blue cheese. The curd is still hand-ladled before draining, which preserves its structure, resulting in a luscious, creamy texture when the cheeses are mature. The rind is a mottled orange-brown with patches of natural white mold. Flavors are rich and lactic with a beautiful balance of blue mold, earth, and butter.

    Pairing: As a topping for your favorite steak hot off the grill, candied nuts, port

     

    Roquefort – The undisputed king of French Blues! The cheesemongers at Mons Fromagerie have been sourcing and maturing artisanal cheeses since the 1960s. Roquefort starts with baking loaves of rye. After aging for a few weeks, this bread will yield an entire year’s supply of Penicillium roqueforti, the mold used to inoculate the cheese curds. This mold, combined with raw sheep’s milk, gives Roquefort its unique character. The cheese’s powerful aroma has notes of bread and yeast. The texture is crumbly yet creamy, with a taste that is at once pleasantly salty, sweet, briny, and piquant.

    Pairing: Amazing on its own, on a salad, or with a glass of Sauternes

    Adarré – A spectacular cheese from the Basque region in France, selected by renowned affineur Rodolphe Le Meunier. Sweet, nutty, bright, and tangy, all its components are in balance. It gets its creamy mouthfeel from an ideal mix of sheep and goat’s milk.

    Pairing: Walnuts, stone fruit, a full-bodied white Rioja

    Ossau Iraty – An excellent sheep’s milk cheese produced in the French Pyrenées. The name is derived from the production area that includes two neighboring provinces: the Ossau Valley, located in the Bearn; and Iraty, a forested area in the French Basque Pyrenées. This particular cheese is aged by affineur Herve Mons and made only during the spring and summer months. The summer milk yields the most favorable flavor profile, resulting in a nutty and sweet cheese with notes of earth and cellar. The texture is uniformly smooth, creamy, and dense.

    Pairing: Black cherry jam, cured meats, French whites

    Beaufort – One of the finest alpine cheeses in the world! This cheese has been produced for over two millenniums in the Haute-Savoie region of France, an area highly regarded for superior pasture during the summer months. Enormous in stature, each wheel of Beaufort weighs an impressive 80 to 130 pounds. The rind of Beaufort is a reddish-brown color and slightly sticky. Aromas are mildly pungent and pleasantly barnyardy. Flavors are savory, herbaceous, and fruity, with notes of butter, grass, and salt underpinned by a granular sweetness. We get a whole wheel every year just before Thanksgiving—when it’s gone, it’s gone, so don’t miss it!

    Pairing: Walnuts, Champagne

    OG Kristal – This aged Belgian gouda-style cheese is produced in the Roeselare region. The award-winning cheese is aged over 18 months and has a creamy, full-bodied flavor with a dense texture and lovely crystallization.

    Pairing: A good bottle of cabernet and some dark chocolate

    Ashbrook – Made by Spring Brook Farm Cheese in Vermont, Ashbrook is their ode to the French Morbier. Made from fresh raw Jersey cow milk, the cheese exhibits a distinctive layer of vegetal ash running through the center of the paste. It is a semi-soft washed rind cheese that is aged for approximately three months. There are aromas of damp, dark cellar with a mild funkiness on the rind that gives way to a paste that is milky, lactic, and sweet.

    Pairing: Crunchy vegetables, strawberries, sparkling wine, ales

    Appenzeller – An exemplar among Swiss cheeses, Appenzeller takes its name from the town in which it’s been produced using traditional methods for over 700 years. There is Appenzeller, and then there is Appenzeller. This version is from Rolf Beeler, a renowned Swiss affineur who has been producing distinctive raw milk cheeses for over 30 years. Aged a minimum of six months, his cheese has an unparalleled richness. Its complexity & assertiveness is owed to the careful and secret herbal brining process. Aromas of brown butter & roasted hazelnuts are balanced with rich fruit & a slightly crystalline texture. An indispensable component to any fondue, it is also perfect for lunch with fruit, a crusty loaf of bread, and an Alsatian white wine.

    Pairing: Crusty loaf of bread, pears, and an Alsatian white wine; great for fondue

    Beurre De Baratte – If you want great butter, go with the one that comes from a world-renowned affineur. If you know cheese, you know butter. This butter is from Rodolphe Le Meunier, maker of many fine cheeses that we enjoy in our case. It is rich & silky with flecks of course sea salt.

    Pairing: A crunchy baguette and a glass of wine

    Carboncino – This lovely Italian cheese hails from the agricultural heart of Piemonte. The name comes from the dusting of charcoal gray ash that covers the soft, silky white interior. Made from a blend of cow, goat, and sheep milk, each of which adds delicate nuances of flavor to the cheese. The texture is light and spongy.

    Pairing: Crackers, prosecco, light pale ales

    Besace du Berger – From the Dordogne Périgord in the southwest, this French goat milk cheese gets its unique pear shape from the traditional method of hanging the curds in a muslin cloth and gathering the ends at the top to hang and drain. Once drained, the cheese is rolled in vegetable ash, which, before refrigeration, helped to preserve the cheese and to keep flies away. Nowadays, the tradition continues because of the contributions it makes to the flavor. The ash softens the acidity by drawing out moisture. The texture near the rind is dense in contrast to the soft and milky interior.

    Pairing: Sauvignon Blanc or Chablis, green salads, crusty bread

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