The Cheese Board

[Roger Webb]

............... a local Norman Bigwig who got up Henry II's nose, accompanied by a crusty baguette and a glass of robust Corbieres.....

Painful!!

[Roger Webb]

Some music to accompany your cheesy potatoes and sausage

Such a strong accent!

Thanks for that, my wife will appreciate it, he visited the school in a Paris suburb at which she taught.

[Sir Velo]

Currently enjoying on a sojourn in East Anglia Baron Bigod, a lusty, creamy Suffolk Brie de Meaux, named after a local Norman Bigwig who got up Henry II's nose, accompanied by a crusty baguette and a glass of robust Corbieres.

[Mandryka]

Some music to accompany your cheesy potatoes and sausage

Such a strong accent!

[Roger Webb]

Une solution parfaite...



Seen on Twitter, but Amazon have them.

On the subject of melted cheese, one of my favourite regional restaurants in Paris is the Ambassade d'Auvergne a couple of streets north of the Centre Pompidou. They serve that rib-sticker of a potato dish, Pommes Aligot...and in the traditional way, at the table with the maitre de rang overseeing the operation and a sous-chef with an enormous copper pan, firstly mixing, and then to demonstrate the consistency, lifting the mash into the air as high as it'll go. The elasticity is achieved by the inclusion of Cantal, or some say Tomme, cheese. This is often served with a single Andoillette, at the Ambassade of excellent quality. Good selection of wines from the area, the sommelier will recommend wines from the region, we took his advice and had an excellent Pays d'Issoire gamay, like a Beaujolais village, and just right for the andoillette.

http://www.patriciawells.com/blog/2016/1/29/lambassade-dauvergne

[AuntDaisy]

I agree about setting it alight, just as I dislike the idea of baking camembert.

Une solution parfaite...



Seen on Twitter, but Amazon have them.

[french frank]

I somehow find the idea of filling the 'trou' in the top of the cheese with marc - of any sort - then setting it alight like brandy and Christmas Pudding (the marc would need to be warmed before it would ignite) ever so slightly gross.

I agree about setting it alight, just as I dislike the idea of baking camembert.

Why spoil perfectly good cheese. It reminds me of Mitterand and the poor ortolans.

Infusing the cheese with a little wine seems to me to be of a different order, especially if you're going to drink wine with it anyway. I haven't tried marc/grappa so haven't developed a taste or a distaste for it.

[HighlandDougie]

the received wisdom on wines to accompany your langres -

'vins blancs secs : coteaux champenois, puligny-montrachet, chablis, sancerre, champagne'

"les amateurs verseront dans la 'fontaine' du langres du marc de champagne ou de bourgogne"

I somehow find the idea of filling the 'trou' in the top of the cheese with marc - of any sort - then setting it alight like brandy and Christmas Pudding (the marc would need to be warmed before it would ignite) ever so slightly gross. Why spoil perfectly good cheese. It reminds me of Mitterand and the poor ortolans.

[Roger Webb]

the received wisdom on wines to accompany your langres -

'vins blancs secs : coteaux champenois, puligny-montrachet, chablis, sancerre, champagne'

"les amateurs verseront dans la 'fontaine' du langres du marc de champagne ou de bourgogne"

Thanks for those suggestions, interesting Sancerre is suggested but not Poilly-Fumé....I'd prefer Chablis, especially as we're having moules before the cheese - although I think Chablis (even petit) a little grand for such a modest crustacean...my preference when in Brittany is for Gros plant sur lie or Muscadet of course....or even cider.

Hugh Johnson gives Cahors and robust wines from the Languedoc as red alternatives for washed rind cheeses.

[vinteuil]

Langres ...I've checked my celler and I have a Muscat St-Jean de Minervois by Colomban which won a Medaille d'argent in the Paris show. Interestingly Hugh Johnson gives Muscat as an accompaniment to washed rind cheeses incl. Langres, along with Alsace Gewurz. and some reds.

.

the received wisdom on wines to accompany your langres -

'vins blancs secs : coteaux champenois, puligny-montrachet, chablis, sancerre, champagne'

"les amateurs verseront dans la 'fontaine' du langres du marc de champagne ou de bourgogne"

[french frank]

I've checked my celler and I have a Muscat St-Jean de Minervois by Colomban which won a Medaille d'argent in the Paris show. Interestingly Hugh Johnson gives Muscat as an accompaniment to washed rind cheeses incl. Langres, along with Alsace Gewurz. and some reds.

That is interesting. I claim no expert knowledge of such things (or anything) - just a 'what if?' curiosity, safe in the self-knowledge that I'll eat anything, even if it's awful. Well, I have hitherto drawn the line at baked camembert. Also snails, but if I happen to be eating out with my metropolitan nephew who is known to partake I might beg a half snail to test. He says the texture is a bit like mushrooms.

[Roger Webb]

We're having onion soup tomorrow faire chabrot - and as it seems obligatory to wear a beret at the dining table, I've looked mine out....my wife disapproves of me wearing it in France, so this'll be an opportunity to get some use out of it. Following that, Moules and then Langres à la FF....I've checked my celler and I have a Muscat St-Jean de Minervois by Colomban which won a Medaille d'argent in the Paris show. Interestingly Hugh Johnson gives Muscat as an accompaniment to washed rind cheeses incl. Langres, along with Alsace Gewurz. and some reds.

BTW AuntD, we often go over to Cinderford to Tesco, but tomorrow it's Ledbury.

[AuntDaisy]

Yes, absolutely disgusting!!!..................................... ...............................having a cat on the table!

I've learnt a lot today about cheese, wine & French customs. Thanks Roger & French Frank.

I'll have a look in our local Coleford Co-op to see if any of these delicacies are to be had...

[Roger Webb]

I have never partaken of a baked Camembert and have no wish to. The Langres is a soft cheese with a washed rind anyway: the wine merely gives it a bit of flavour. I stuck a skewer in the top so that the few drops of wine could leach down into the cheese.

I'm trying it tomorrow FF....an excuse to visit Ledbury our nearest T***o! Football just finished I'll examine my celler for a suitable wine!

BTW the connection with Goat was that in Central France, Faire Chabrol originally meant to drink like a goat hence the application to what you see in the photo from AuntD.

[french frank]

........with those 'oven ready' Camemberts You drink the cheese rather than eating from it....

I have never partaken of a baked Camembert and have no wish to. The Langres is a soft cheese with a washed rind anyway: the wine merely gives it a bit of flavour. I stuck a skewer in the top so that the few drops of wine could leach down into the cheese.