A great addition to any event whether it be a dinner party or just a night in with friends
is a cheese board. There are so many options when it comes to entertaining with
cheese. One easy way to do it is to get one large piece of your favourite cheese and
serve with crusty bread or crackers. Accompany this with fresh fruit and you're already
on to a winner. Many people, if they have a large group to cater for, will get a full wheel
of ripe Brie de Meaux, served with crisp apples and freshly baked ciabatta bread.
This can create a memorable display with little effort.

There are no set rules when it comes to cheese boards. Traditionally, and still most
frequently, people enjoy variety. A traditional cheese board will include a soft, hard,
blue and goat. A good place to start would be to pick a personal favourite and build
the board around this cheese. For example, if Comte was to be your starting point,
it would be good to add a piece of Bried de Meaux or maybe a more pungent Epoisse.
With this, a piece of Cashel Blue, Ireland's most popular blue, would work really well.
Three pieces of cheese is perfect but to add a delicate goats cheese gives the board
another dimension. St. Tola from Co. Clare or a black ash covered Triaskel Pyramid
from Co. Waterford would be perfect. This is also a good mix of both local, Irish and
continental cheese.

Another option is to go for a themed cheeseboard. This could either be related to
country of origin of the cheese, for example, a Spanish board may pair mature
Manchego with a blue Cabrales and a more buttery Mahon. Serve with Spanish wines,
cured meats and olives, and you just have to close your eyes and dream of the balmy
Spanish evening. Even easier is to stay local. Irish cheese is now recognised the world
over. A beautiful sweet St Gall from Co. Cork, a Camembert style Cooleeney from
Tipperary, why not add in a Mossfield Organic Gouda with cumin seeds. Added to
this a sharp Bellingham Blue from Co. Louth, would make for an interesting
combination. Serve with a sweet and crisp apple and an Irish fruit chutney. The other
option when it comes to themes is to stick to a particular type of milk, for example,
sheep or goat. A goat's Camembert (Gortnamona from Co. Tipperary) paired with a
hard St. Tola along with a Pave Blesois. Ideally this would be served with fresh figs,
a fig chutney and a crusty white cob.

Another important note is to ask our cheese monger what is good on the day
you are making your purchase. Also let us know when you are planning to serve
your cheese selection; we may have cheeses which are ready for that day and
those which will be ready for eating later. It is best to get the cheese as close as
possible to the time you are serving, as smaller pieces of cheese will have a
tendency to dry out in the fridge over time. Of course buying your cheese
selection on the day you are eating them may not always be possible so it is
important to take the cheese out of the fridge at least an hour before serving to
bring back to room temperature, allowing you to fully appreciate the subtle flavours
of the cheese.

Blue: There is a phenomenal number of blue cheese available.  Most modern blues
have a culture (penicillin) added whilst the cheese is young but, traditionally, as the
 cheese matured in caves and cellars, blue would have entered the cheese through
cracks in the cheese surface.  Well known blue cheese includes Roquefort made with
Sheep's milk, Stilton from the UK (a much dryer crumbly blue) and Ireland's favourite
Cashel Blue made by the Grubb family in Co. Tipperary.

Flavoured cheese: Cheese makers have been manipulating cheese for hundreds of
years by adding all sort of herbs, spices, nuts and fruits to their cheese. Dutch
makers have added cumin seed to their Gouda wheels for centuries to create
Leyden/Leiden. Similarly, Ralph Halsam adds herbs, cumin seed and even seaweed
to his fantastic organic Mossfield Farm cheese.  The list of flavoured cheese is
endless; some love them others not so.  But with the amount of different added
ingredients it's always worth bearing them in mind; many will surprise, even delight you.

Fresh Cheeses: These are chesses that are ready to eat within a few days of
production. Fresh cheeses are best used when cooking or as part of a light summer
salad.  Examples include feta, halloumi, mozzarella and ricotta.

Hard Cheeses: Can vary greatly in style.  From a crumbly cheddar to an Emmental
with an elastic texture each hard cheese has it's own unique quality.  The age of
the cheese has a large bearing on the strength of flavours. A robust and rich 36
month old  Parmigiano Reggiano will be completely different to a mild and fruity
St Brigid at its best from six to eight weeks after production.

Washed rind: Including Ardrahan and Gubbeen from Co. Cork and the deliciously
creamy Taleggio from Bergamo, Italy.  Washed rind cheeses are bathed in a salty
brine and sometimes wine or beer is added to this. The brine helps form a rind
around a soft or semi-soft cheese.