Emily Post's Great Get-Togethers (14 page)

Note:
You may provide little salt spoons for the chile and salt or instruct guests to sprinkle. Provide plenty of cocktail napkins!

The Cheese Party

A
rtisanal cheese makers in the United States can stand up to anything Europe has to offer. And since we’re Vermonters we’ll shamelessly plug the Green Mountain State’s finest. But whether you’re a fan of Jasper Hill Farm’s Bailey Hazen Blue from Greensboro, Vermont, Great Hill Blue from Marion, Massachusetts, or The Original Blue from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. in Point Reyes Station, California, the whole idea is to search out
your
local cheese makers. Anna found a locally produced Brie made with raw goat’s milk that’s now her “house cheese.” Goat, sheep, or cow; fresh or aged—there’s a whole universe of cheese to discover. Start by scouting out local cheeses in farmers’ markets and restaurants that feature local produce, or go online—great artisanal cheese is just a click away on the Internet.

There are several ways to present a selection of cheeses at a party. To keep the palate from being overwhelmed, offer three to six cheeses. In making your selections, consider a cheese’s milk source, texture, and age. You could offer cheeses made from a variety of milks—cow, goat, sheep, buffalo, or mixed—or select a variety of cheeses made from just one type of milk. Texture and age provide even more variables: fresh-ripened, bloomy rind, semisoft, washed rind, hard or blue.

Round out your platter with fruits like grapes, figs, peaches, pears, and apples or honeys and fruit jams. Brie with Champagne grapes, Gorgonzola with pears, and aged Cheddar with apples are classic pairings that shouldn’t be missed.

If you’re looking for beverages to pair with cheese, fruity wines, artisanal beer, and cider make great soul mates. Think young light wines like Chenin Blanc or Gavi with fresh soft cheeses. Spicier and lusher whites like Chardonnay, Riesling, and Viognier pair well with double and triple cream cheeses such as Brie and St. André, washed rind cheeses like Taleggio and fontina, and hard aged cheeses like St. George or Vermont Shepard.

One of our all-time favorite cheese experiences was in Italy, tasting a local sheep’s cheese in three stages of aging. First was
pecorino fresco Toscano
(fresh Tuscan sheep cheese and Anna’s favorite) served with a light honey; then
pecorino medio stagionato
(medium-aged) with a hot-pepper marmalade; and to finish
pecorino stagionato
(aged over three months) with a deep, dark, rich chestnut flower honey. Incredible!

To serve the cheeses, group them on a platter or plate them individually with their accompaniment. (See How to Compose an Attractive Cheese Board, below.) Label each cheese and provide the right cutting tool—a sharp knife or wedge for hard cheeses like Parmesan and Cheddar, a sharp knife for semisoft cheeses like Edam or Bel Paese, a “soft” knife for bloomy rind cheeses like Brie, and a spreader for very fresh cheeses like chèvre. Have several pieces started so guests know how to proceed.

How to Compose an Attractive Cheese Board

• A wood cheese board looks attractive and is actually a practical choice if you’re going to be cutting any firm cheeses or fruit like apples and pears.
  
• We often build our cheese boards by placing several boards in a large flat basket lined with white linen napkins or, in summer and fall when we can find them, grape leaves.
  
• The cheese is placed on the boards, with hard cheeses sliced in small slices and attractively fanned next to a larger whole piece of the same cheese. This way, the shape and rind of the cheese are nicely displayed.
  
• Garnish with toasted or spiced nuts. Dried fruit like dates, apricots, or figs (cut them in half and pit; arrange cut side down), even strawberries or cherries can all be scattered on the board. Tiny clusters of grapes or fresh figs also make an attractive edible garnish.
  
• Herb bundles are inserted between the boards and the perimeter of the basket.
  
• Chutney,
  membrillo
  (quince paste), olive tapenades, olives, and honey should be offered in little bowls. These bowls can be placed in the spaces between the boards, as can the bread, either fresh or toasted, and crackers, so that the entire presentation is self-contained.
  

Creating an Antipasto Platter

W
hile cheese can be savored on its own, it can be part of an antipasto platter, too. We like to build combination platters for parties where we include:

• Cheeses: soft, semiaged, and blue or aged
  
• Nuts and dried or fresh fruit
  
• Salumi like prosciutto, sopressata, salami
  
• Pickled vegetables: caper berries; gherkins; pickled green beans, beets, or other seasonal vegetables; roasted red peppers; giardiniera
  
• Toasts, made from a baguette, brushed with olive oil
  

CHEESE TYPE:

• Fresh, unripened
  

VARIETIES:

• Cream cheese
  
• Ricotta
  
• Mozzarella
  
• Mascarpone
  
• Fresh goat
  
• Burrata
  

SERVE WITH:

• Honey, chutneys, and jams
  
• Fruits: berries, pears, figs, apples, grapes, dried cherries
  
• Toasted nut breads
  

WINE PAIRING:

• Viognier
  
• Vermentino
  

CUT WITH:

• Spreader
  

CHEESE TYPE:

• Fresh, ripened
  

VARIETIES:

• Chèvre
  
• Crottins
  
• Humboldt Fog
  

SERVE WITH:

• Grapes, apricots, figs, berries
  
• Toasted grainy breads
  

WINE PAIRING:

• Rosé
  
• Beaujolais
  
• Lager
  
• Pinot Grigio
  
• Dolcetto
  

CUT WITH:

• Spreader
  

CHEESE TYPE:

• Bloomy rind
  

VARIETIES:

• Brie
  
• Camembert
  
• St. André
  

SERVE WITH:

• Grapes, apricots, plums
  
• Chutneys
  
• Olive tapenades
  
• Sourdough bread
  

WINE PAIRING:

• French Chardonnay
  
• Sparkling wine
  
• Pale ale
  

CUT WITH:

• Knife or spreader
  

CHEESE TYPE:

• Semisoft: firm with a natural rind, aged a minimum of 60 days
  

VARIETIES:

• Gouda
  
• Monterey Jack
  
• Bel paese
  
• Fontina
  
• Taleggio
  

SERVE WITH:

• Tomatoes
  
• Apples
  
• Pickled vegetables
  
• Toasted nuts
  
• (Taleggio pairs well with honey)
  

WINE PAIRING:

• Beaujolais
  
• Spanish Riojas
  
• Riesling
  
• Viognier
  
• Tokay d’alsace
  

CUT WITH:

• Sharp knife or slicer
  

CHEESE TYPE:

• Hard: aged over 60 days
  

VARIETIES:

• Cheddars
  
• Manchego
  
• Pecorino
  
• Toscano
  
• Parmesan
  

SERVE WITH:

• Apples, pears
  
• Fruit jams
  
• Hot pepper
  
• marmalade
  
• Toasted nuts
  
• Dates, dried figs
  

WINE PAIRING:

• Chianti
  
• Rosso di
  
• Montepulciano
  
• Cider
  
• Dark ale
  
• Sparkling wine (with parmesan)
  

CUT WITH:

• Knife or wedge; use a vegetable peeler for long, wide shavings
  

CHEESE TYPE:

• Washed or brushed rind
  

VARIETIES:

• Epoisses Morbier
  

SERVE WITH:

• Prosciutto
  
• Pickled vegetables
  
• Fruit spreads
  

WINE PAIRING:

• Sangiovese
  
• Barolo
  
• Dark ale
  

CUT WITH:

• sharp knife
  

CHEESE TYPE:

• Blue
  

VARIETIES:

• Roquefort
  
• Rosenberg
  
• Gorgonzola
  

SERVE WITH:

• Dates
  
• Figs
  
• Honey
  
• Walnuts
  
• Arugula
  
• Walnut wheat toasts
  

WINE PAIRING:

• shiraz
  
• Gewürztraminer
  
• Port
  

CUT WITH:

• Knife or cheese scoop
  

The Wine Party

W
ith wine’s popularity at an all-time high, and vineyards popping up in every nook and cranny of the world, becoming wine savvy can feel like a daunting proposition. A wine party is a fun way to learn about new wines and sample vintages that ordinarily might be out of your price range. Although there’s no reason why a wine party can’t be large, they tend to be more intimate—a smaller party lets everyone have a say about the wines they’re sampling. You can throw a wine party one of several ways. You can host and provide all the wine and food, or it can be a group effort—you provide hors d’oeuvres, say, and each guest or couple brings a bottle of wine to share.

But which wines should you concentrate on? Here are several interesting ways to customize your wine tasting.

• V
  ERTICAL
  T
  ASTING:
  Tasting one wine, different vintages
  
• H
  ORIZONTAL
  T
  ASTING:
  Tasting one year, one wine, different producers
  
• P
  RICE
  -B
  USTER
  T
  ASTING:
  Your best $10 to $15 selection of wine
  
• O
  NE
  W
  INE VS.
  A
  NOTHER:
  Merlot and Cabernet (place each in a brown bag and let people take notes)
  
• B
  LIND
  T
  ASTING:
  Choose a wine and provide bottles in a wide price range, from the inexpensive to one expensive wine. Wrap all bottles in brown bags—it’s fun to see how people rate the cheapest and costliest bottles. Either the host purchases the costliest wine or the group divides the total costs evenly among the participants.
  
• W
  ORLD
  C
  UP
  T
  ASTING:
  Same varietal, different countries: Australia vs. Chile; Spain vs. Portugal; Italy vs. France; United States vs. South Africa; Germany vs. Hungary; Oregon Pinot vs. French Burgundy.
  

Become buddies with your local wine merchant. She’ll be a terrific resource not just for wine recommendations, but for helping to organize your tasting as well.

Party Notes

A
professional wine tasting is serious business: One doesn’t so much drink the wine as take a sip that’s swirled in the mouth but not necessarily swallowed. It involves “spit cups” and palate and nose cleansers
(see Tasting Like a Pro, below)
. For most of the rest of us, a wine-tasting party is an occasion to actually drink wine and have fun learning, comparing, and experiencing how wines pair with foods.

You can throw a dinner party where your wines are featured and paired by course, or serve wines paired with various hors d’oeuvres or small plates. In the latter case, you’ll want to provide enough food to balance the wine. Have lots of glasses for this party—one per person for each wine. Even if you don’t want to invest in just the right glass for each wine, provide good, all-purpose white and red wineglasses—one per guest for each wine to be tasted. Have enough glasses for at least two rounds—you can always rinse them in between in a pinch.

Tips on Serving and Enjoying Wine

• At dinner, set a glass for each wine to be served.
  
• If you’re having several wines, serve whites before reds and dry before sweet.
  
• Fill wineglasses to the widest point of the bowl; this will let the wine breathe.
  
• At dinner, plan on one bottle of wine per person (but adjust according to your knowledge of your guests).
  
• Pouring red wine into a decanter, a vessel, usually glass, with a large bowl and a narrow neck, exposes a large surface area of the wine to oxygen. This is also called “letting the wine breathe” and allows the full flavor of the wine to be released.
  
• Finish wine within a day or two of opening; otherwise, use the leftover for cooking. The same oxidation that develops the wine’s flavor will also cause it to deteriorate over time. Vacuum pumps are great for this reason—they really do extend the drinkability of the wine.
  
• Shop around. Prices vary greatly from store to store. You can find some great deals on the Internet; some sites even include free shipping. Many stores offer a 10 percent discount when you buy a case (twelve bottles) of wine—mixed or single label.
  
• Store wine in a cool, dark place, preferably on its side.