想象一下，您邀请了几个朋友吃晚饭，所有人都聚集在桌子旁。您刚刚完成了主菜，每个人都很放松，在最后的葡萄酒上饮。“只要这个美好的时光才能持续更长的时间，”您想。在我们家中，我们找到了这样做的理想方法 - 晚餐后通过奶酪课程。当我们品尝奶酪时，我们的客人坐下来交谈。很多时候，我们从这个梦幻状态感到震惊，却发现一两个小时已经滑落了。

“But what exactly is a cheese course?” In our work for the Oakville Grocery in California, we find that many people ask this question. A cheese course can be as simple as one great cheese for guests to nibble on at their leisure after dinner, or it can be a carefully considered platter of selected cheeses, showcasing a variety of textures and flavors — for instance, a semisoft cheese like Camembert, a hard cheese like aged Dry Monterey Jack, and a blue cheese like Gorgonzola.

In Europe, cheese is a natural follow-up to meals. The cheese is usually served at the dinner table with some good bread, and if no dessert is planned after the cheese course, ripe or dried fruits, nuts, or other accompaniments might be offered with the cheese. Sometimes cheese is served as a partner to a leafy salad.

You’ve probably noticed that many American restaurants have picked up on this European custom, largely because American chefs are anxious to show off the excellent variety of artisanal cheeses now being made here. There’s no reason you can’t do the same thing.

计划奶酪课程很容易，这是进行味觉测试的绝佳借口。没有什么比服务奶酪课程更简单或更令人满意了，没有正式的规则。我们在这里提供一些用于购买和展示奶酪的准则，但是我们可以提供的最好的建议是尝试尽可能多的奶酪，以了解当今制作的令人难以置信的美味品种。一旦您弄清楚自己喜欢什么以及想与朋友分享的东西，您就可以将选择范围缩小到三到四个特定的奶酪课程。(Any more than five at a time is a little overwhelming to the palate.) To help you get a good idea of the various flavors and textures, see the Cheese selection chart — it’s based on the hundreds of cheeses we’re lucky enough to taste every year.

Serve cheese at room temperature.一旦确定了为奶酪课程提供的服务，您应该记住的唯一真正的规则就是在供应奶酪之前将奶酪带到室温。刚从冰箱中取出的奶酪只有一小部分被调整的奶酪。对于奶酪课程，这很方便，因为您可以将奶酪从冰箱中取出，在晚餐前将其放置在冰箱中，并在晚餐前放松一下。通过删除所有包装，并用芝士塞，洗碗剂或玻璃奶酪铃遮盖托盘，让奶酪呼吸。

Choose open, accessible cheese platters.When deciding what type of serving platter to use for a cheese course, consider how many guests you have. If your numbers (and table) are small, one good platter should be fine as long as it isn’t too heavy to pass. Cake plates and wooden boards work well, too. Line the tray with fresh fig, grape, or lemon leaves, or a straw mat, if you wish. If you have a lot of guests, make up two cheese platters, or put each cheese on a different plate. Just be sure to leave room around each cheese so it can be cut comfortably. Provide each guest with a salad or bread plate to put the cheese on as it comes around.

You don’t need special knives for a cheese course.While cheese knives with a variety of blades and decorative handles are available, you probably have what you need in your kitchen drawers. You’ll want to provide a small knife for each cheese with a different texture — a sharp knife for semihard or hard cheeses and a spreading or butter-type knife for each softer, messier cheese. Start a few cuts or slices in each piece by following the natural lines of the cheese or by cutting a small wedge out of a wheel of cheese. If you’re not sure how to cut a certain shape, or if you want suggestions on which rinds to eat and which to trim, ask your cheese merchant.

跳过饼干，并用一条好面包食用奶酪。Although many of us grew up on “cheese and crackers,” the proliferation of excellent fresh-baked breads in many parts of the country allows many more options for cheese lovers. We’re fond of dense breads studded with nuts and dried fruit to pair with cheese. Any sort of fresh bread, though, is preferable, in our minds, to crackers. The yeasty overtones of bread blend nicely with the many complex flavors of cheese.

Round out cheese platters with your own creative ideas.我们可以有一个之间的不可救药的食物造型师ball arranging cheese platters, since cheese is a gorgeous, tempting, delectable food, but remember, too, that cheese doesn’t have to be embellished. While olives, cornichons, chutneys, dried and fresh fruits, and toasted nuts complement most cheeses, they aren’t necessary. Consider how substantial the rest of your meal will be before designing your cheese platter. If you’ve had a fairly light main course, you can round out your cheese selection with accompaniments.

What you serve with a cheese should highlight its best qualities.Often the best way to do this is with flavor and texture contrasts. For instance, the salty-sweet contrast of a good blue cheese with fresh figs is magical. Slices of crisp, tart apple give a textural kick to creamy Brie. Also consider the season when choosing accompaniments. For instance, in fall and winter, California aged Dry Jack is a special treat with fresh pears and toasted walnuts. And the region a cheese is from — and sometimes its history — will offer good clues for natural pairings: a Spanish cheese like Manchego is terrific with Spanish olives or almonds and sherry. The well-travelled British discovered that their own farmhouse Cheddar was a great match with Indian chutney, and the pairing of port and Stilton is legendary.

Sometimes the best way to highlight a cheese is to serve it with a salad. We often like to introduce our friends to one very special cheese by serving a little bit of it with a simple green salad. For instance, we recently served a salad of fresh baby greens with a hazelnut dressing and a few slices of nutty Comté.

As an alternative to the cheese platter, you can plate individual servings of cheese.如果您想让奶酪课程更正式，可以在厨房里切奶酪，并为每位客人设计一个小盘子。例如，我们喜欢为每位客人切成一小片蓬松的山gorgonzola，用一点蜂蜜淋上奶酪，然后将一些烤核桃扔在上面。我们在桌子上穿过一个硬皮的法式长棍面包。但是，有时候最好的奶酪课程是最简单的。晚餐后，像斯蒂尔顿（Stilton）一样带出一大笔钱，让您的客人随心所欲地进行工作。

Whether plain or extravagant, the cheese course is designed for savoring. Each bite is an explosion of flavors, each sip of wine so satisfying. The enjoyment of cheese is the perfect antidote to the frenetic pace of our workaday lives, allowing time for family and friends to relax and enjoy one another and the savory pleasures of one of the world’s great foods.

Finding and buying good cheese

由于美国手工奶酪的出色增长和更好地进口欧洲奶酪，今天就比十年前更容易找到好奶酪。以下是一些指南，可以帮助您购买奶酪。

寻找知名的商人。You can recognize serious cheesesellers by their willingness to talk about cheese, to offer you tastes, and to cut cheese to order from whole wheels. They usually won’t sell cheese that’s been cut and packaged before arriving at their store, and their cheeses will carry signs describing their flavors, textures, and origins.

Take advantage of the cheeseseller’s knowledge.If you find a knowledgeable cheeseseller, be sure to take advantage of this resource. Ask the staff a lot of questions. Develop a relationship with the seller in the same way you would a wine merchant, giving feedback about your likes and dislikes, and explaining how you’ll be using the cheese you buy.

Find the best cheese counter among your local grocery stores.If you have access to a store devoted exclusively to cheese, consider yourself lucky and head there immediately. Next, find out if a local specialty gourmet store has a cheese counter. Barring that, you’ll want to compare the cheese selections at your local grocery stores. Many markets carry at least a few varieties of fine cheese. Some grocery stores now have service counters where trained staff will cut and wrap cheese to order. At the very least, look for cheese that the store has obviously wrapped on the premises, and avoid cheese that’s vacuum-sealed in plastic.

Always inspect the cheese before buying it.如果闻起来像氨,或者我的皮s either dried and cracked or very wet, it’s probably not in the best condition.

If the merchant offers tastes, always accept,即使你已经试过了the cheese before. Cheese is an ever-changing product that varies with season, maturity, and handling. Tasting the cheese is the only guarantee that you will like it.

回家时冷藏奶酪。Cheese continues to ripen as it ages, and refrigeration slows this process. The very freshest cheeses (like ricotta) have the shortest shelf life — just a few days. The hardest aged cheeses (like Parmigiano-Reggiano) keep for months if properly stored.

If you can’t find the cheese you want in your area, try ordering by mail.几家专门从事难以找到的进口和家用奶酪的优质美食商店将很高兴为您运送奶酪，并且还有一些直接销售高质量奶酪的互联网网站。

Online sources for cheese

Gourmet shops

奶酪商店
419 N. Beverly Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
800-547-1515
www.cheesestorebh.com
This popular gourmet store’s focus is on cheese, and it carries anywhere from 200 to 400 varieties at any given time.

Formaggio Kitchen
休伦大街244号。
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-354-4750
www.formaggiokitchen.com
This Boston gourmet market has an outstanding selection of over 200 cheeses, as well as its own ripening room, where cheeses are held or aged at the best temperature and humidity.

Ideal Cheese Shop
1205 Second Ave.
New York, NY 10021
800-382-0109
www.idealcheese.com
这家商店完全致力于奶酪，拥有难以找到的进口欧洲奶酪的专业，几乎可以找到您想要的任何奶酪。

默里的
257 Bleecker St.
New York, NY 10014
212-243-3289
www.murrayscheese.com
这家微小的商店是纽约市奶酪爱好者的秘密。它以非常公平的价格提供最高品质奶酪的种类繁多（在一年中的任何特定时间超过300个奶酪）。

Zingerman’s Delicatessen
422 Detroit St.
安阿伯，密歇根州48104
313-663-3354
http://www.zingermans.com
Visit this amazing store for a selection of all the “bests” in the gourmet world, including an outstanding cheese department. Or call for the catalog, which features detailed descriptions of carefully chosen American and European cheeses.

在网上

www.igourmet.com
Descriptions and prices of hard-to-find imported cheeses are available directly from the site and through a cheese-of-the-month club.

www.cheesenet.info
Information on how cheese is made and links to cheese producers and other cheese web sites.

www.cheesesociety.org
The American Cheese Society (W7702 County Road X, Darien, WI 53114, 414-728-4458) encourages the appreciation of America’s farmstead and natural specialty cheeses.