Get the facts on cheese
Cheese is a nutritious food made mostly from the milk of cows but also other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, reindeer, camels and yaks. Around 4000 years ago people started to breed animals and process their milk.
Cheese can not really be said to have been "invented". This delicious food must have resulted from the simple observation that milk left in a container ends up by coagulating, even more if it is hot. People living in areas where the climate changed seasonally would also have noticed the effect of temperature on this process: in warmer weather the milk would curdle faster than in the cold. There are hundreds of different types of cheese that can be differentiated both by the type of milk - raw, skimmed or pasteurised, and by the animal - cow, goat, sheep, buffalo, horse or camel.
Serving and Storage Tips
• Unpasteurised cheese with a range of flavours should not be sliced until served.
• Keep a cheese in the conditions in which it matures. Hard, semi-hard and semi-soft cheeses are stored in temperatures around 8 to 13 C.
• Keep cheese wrapped in waxed paper and place it in a loose-fitting food-bag, in order not to lose humidity and to maintain the circulation of air.
• Wrap blue cheeses thoroughly, as mould spores spread readily, not only to other cheeses but also to other items in the refrigerator. Chilled cheeses should be taken out of the refrigerator one to two hours before serving.
• Cheeses contain living organisms that must not be cut off from air, yet it is important not to let a cheese dry out.
• Do not store cheese with other strong-smelling foods, as a cheese breathes and it will absorb other aromas and may spoil.
• Wrap soft cheeses loosely. Use waxed or greaseproof paper rather than cling film.
• Let cold cheese warm up for about half an hour before eating to allow the flavour and aroma to develop.
How to match cheese and wine?
Both cheese and wine, with their centuries-old traditions, are natural partners. As a rule, the whiter and fresher the cheese the crisper and fruitier the wine should be. The great advantage of this union is that cheese and wine are both foods that can be enjoyed in their "raw" state, with little or no preparation, making them an ideal choice for quick snacks.
There are no hard and strict rules about which wine should be selected to accompany a particular cheese as the best selections are almost always based on individual tastes. However, we can offer you following principles:
• A smooth, fatty cheese may go very well with a similarly smooth, slightly oily wine.
• Sweet wine contrasts very well with a cheese with high acidity.
• White wines go better with many cheeses than reds.
• Not all red wines match with cheese. The most recommended are the fruity, light red wines.
• Dry, fresh red wines are ideally suited to soft cheeses, especially goat ones.
• A wine with good acidity may be complemented by very salted cheeses.
• Dry champagnes are brilliant combination with bloomy white rinds.
• The cheeses can be matched with beer or cider.
• Try regional combination, the cheese and wine from the same region.
For further information visit www.cheese.com
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