Cheese, Cheese, Cheese. What can I say? I love my cheese! Last week I was very fortunate to receive an invite for a 'Vintage' Christmas and I got to go home with 6 blocks of cheesy goodness!
The event featured Warrnambool Cheese & Butter Factory's Cheese Barista, David Mellor. The event was held in celebration of Cracker Barrel's release of their limited edition premium cheddar, Vintage 44, which has been aged for 44 months. I got to taste this cheese and gosh it is really good! This cheese is in the dark grey packaging, featured in the photo above. This cheese is only available for the festive season or while stocks lasts. This is only available at Woolworths, so grab a few if you love this kind of cheese!
I was one of the lucky few that got to learn a few things on how to serve & keep cheese, as well as recipe ideas for cheese. According to David cheddar, vintage or tasty cheeses go well with a glass of red wine as the flavours balance each other out. While creamy cheeses such as camembert or brie suit a sweet dessert wine, as it cuts through the freshness of the cheese. We got to try out these combinations and found them to be true. They truly enhanced the flavours of the cheese and the experience of it all.
I did not grow up with cheese and crackers, so a lot of the rules and guides on how to serve cheese is still new to me. One really helpful tip when sampling different cheeses is to have a palate cleanser. This simply refreshes the taste buds ready to sample the next kind of cheese. Apples, celery and quince paste are great palate cleansers.
Cheese Ideas
Cheese Ideas
David prepared some tasty combos for us and I really cannot get over how these little additives just make the cheese even more delicious!
First one is on the far left of the photo. It is Mil Lel parmesan with a balsamic glaze. If you love anyting balsamic, your mouth will water with this. It is a dizzle of balsamic glaze over the top of small slices of parmesan.
Second one is in the very centre of the photo. It is a block of the Cracker Barrel Vintage 44 Cheddar topped with honey, walnets and dates. This consists of a block of the cheese, dizzled with 1/4 cup of honey, topped with 1/4 cup of chooped walnets and 1/4 cup of chopped dates.
The third combo is camembert pintxos with fruit chutney (Don't worry I can't say it either). It is on the far right of the photo. This consists of cut up baguette slices. Using a 220g block of camembert, cut in 4 slices. Then place the slices on the bread and top with 1 tsp of chutney. I really liked the chutney on this cheese.
Personal edit
I am very thankful to Red Agency for inviting me to this lovely event. I enjoyed it profusely. The cheese and wine was great and the company was amazing. I truly learned a lot about cheese and how to serve it. It also made me appreciate the brand Cracker Barrel even more as we also learned a bit of the process of cheese making and how they do not take shortcuts in ageing their cheeses.
Thank you again for the amazing cheese we got to go home with!
Don't forget to check out my friends' blogs as well
From Left to Right
Kat - http://kitschsnitch.blogspot.com.au/
Kate - http://dixiegirlxox.blogspot.com.au/
Erin - http://babybeautyandbody.blogspot.com.au/
I also did a vlog dedicated to the event, as soon as it is up I will post it down below
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