A Christmas cheeseboard

This cheese board may have been a tad too heavy on the soft cheeses that want to walk off the plate before you have time to eat them. But over all it was a good mix. The Brie was pale yellow with a thick white crust – and was very relaxed very quickly. The Finn was almost liquid inside the thick, chewy crust. It was Brie-like and sweetly mild, though it had a sharper hit of buttery richness and is highly recommended. The Double Gloucester and Cheddar tend to get over-looked at celebrations. They are work-a-day, honest British cheeses but should be welcome at any repast. They are both drier and sturdier than the others, as befits the cheeses that built Britain. The French Charouce was butter-like and creamy, and any one of it, Brie or Finn would have been a good representative of the soft cheese brigade. The goat’s cheese was mild and well, goaty, and the Cambozola was the first blue cheese. More solid than the softer cheeses, with a thin white crust and only slight mottling it released a sweetness that was unhealthily moreish. Still the Stilton is the king of cheeses. It tastes all over mild and salty, with hints of uncouth milkshakes. Great grey-blue colours embedded in the creamy yellow flesh, the whole crumbly, slightly damp and delicious. Cheese! What delights in unexpected places.