Asiago
Asiago is an Italian cheese from the Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige regions, carrying a DOP designation. It comes in two fundamentally different forms: Asiago Pressato (fresh, pressed) and Asiago d’Allevo (aged), which are essentially two different cheeses sharing a name.
Flavor Profile
Asiago Pressato is a young, semi-soft cheese with a mild, slightly sweet flavor and a smooth, elastic texture. It melts well and is approachable for everyday use. The flavor is gentle, buttery, and pleasant.
How to Use Asiago
Use Asiago Pressato in sandwiches, on pizza, and in any preparation where a mild, melting cheese is needed. It is a great everyday cheese that works in both cooking and casual snacking.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair with a light white wine like Pinot Grigio or Soave, or a crisp lager. Serve with fresh vegetables, Italian bread, and mild charcuterie.
Asiago d’Allevo
Asiago d’Allevo is the aged form of Asiago, a DOP cheese from the Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige regions of Italy. Unlike its younger sibling Asiago Pressato, d’Allevo is aged for months or years, transforming into a firm, granular hard cheese with a sharper, more complex character.
Flavor Profile
Asiago d’Allevo is firm and granular with a sharp, savory, and slightly fruity flavor. The aging process concentrates the flavors and develops nuttiness and a pleasant bite. Longer-aged versions become hard enough for grating and develop small crystalline deposits similar to those found in Parmigiano-Reggiano.
How to Use Asiago d’Allevo
Grate over pasta, soups, and risotto. Use as a table cheese on cheese boards alongside softer varieties for contrast. The aged character makes it an excellent alternative to Parmigiano for grating applications where you want a slightly different flavor profile.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair with a Valpolicella Ripasso, Amarone, or a robust Merlot from the Veneto. Serve with fresh pears, walnuts, and dark honey.
Beaufort
Beaufort is a French Alpine cheese from the Savoie region, sometimes called “the prince of Gruyères.” It is a hard, raw cow’s milk cheese with an AOC designation, produced high in the French Alps using milk from Tarine and Abondance cattle breeds that graze on mountain pastures rich in wildflowers and herbs.
Flavor Profile
Beaufort has a smooth, dense texture and a rich, buttery flavor that balances sweetness and nuttiness with a pleasant tang. The finish is long and complex. Summer Beaufort, made from the milk of cows grazing at high altitude, is considered the finest expression, with the most nuanced and aromatic flavor profile.
How to Use Beaufort
Beaufort is superb for fondue and gratins, where its smooth melting quality and rich flavor truly shine. It is one of the best cheeses in the world for cooking with heat. On a cheese board, aged Beaufort stands on its own as a centerpiece.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair with a dry white wine from Savoie, a Burgundy Chardonnay, or a Jura Vin Jaune. Serve with rustic bread, dried fruit, and hazelnuts.
Blue Cabrales
Cabrales is Spain’s most formidable blue cheese, made in the Asturias mountains and aged in natural limestone caves in the Picos de Europa. It carries a DOP designation and is traditionally made from a blend of cow, sheep, and goat milk depending on the season.
Flavor Profile
Cabrales is intense by any standard. The cave environment produces blue veining that is often dense and irregular rather than neatly striated. The flavor is powerfully sharp, salty, and tangy with a spicy bite and a lingering mineral depth. It is considerably more aggressive than Roquefort or Gorgonzola, and a small amount is plenty.
How to Serve
Serve at room temperature in small portions on a board. In Asturias it is melted into a sauce for steak and served with the local hard cider. Its intensity means it needs sweet or fatty accompaniments to balance it.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair with Asturian sidra, a Pedro Ximénez sherry, or a Port. Serve with quince paste, honey, walnuts, and dark bread.
Storage
Wrap in foil and store in the refrigerator, well separated from other cheeses. Best within two weeks of cutting.
Blue Stilton
Blue Stilton is England’s great blue cheese, one of only a handful of British cheeses with PDO protection. It may be made in just three counties, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire, and only from pasteurised local milk following a strictly defined method.
Flavor Profile
Stilton is firm and slightly crumbly with blue-green veining radiating from the centre outward. The flavor is rich and complex: savory and tangy with a distinct nuttiness, a buttery depth, and a mellow finish that is less salty and less aggressive than Roquefort. Well-aged wheels develop a deeper, more mineral character.
How to Serve
The English tradition serves Stilton at Christmas with Port. Serve at room temperature on a board, crumble it over salads, or melt it into soups and sauces. Stilton and broccoli soup is a British classic.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair with vintage Port, the definitive match, or with a Sauternes or a barleywine. Serve with pears, celery, walnuts, oatcakes, and quince.
Storage
Wrap in wax paper or foil and refrigerate, separated from other cheeses. Keeps well for three weeks.
Butterkase
Butterkäse, meaning “butter cheese” in German, is a semi-soft cow’s milk cheese from Germany and Austria named for its texture rather than any butter content. It has been made since the early 20th century and remains a fixture of the German table.
Flavor Profile
The defining quality is smoothness. The paste is exceptionally supple and creamy with a texture often compared to firm butter, slicing cleanly without crumbling. The flavor is extremely mild and buttery with a faint sweetness and almost no tang or salt. It is among the gentlest cheeses available.
How to Use
Butterkäse melts superbly, turning smooth and glossy without separating, which makes it excellent for grilled sandwiches, burgers, and cheese sauces. It slices cleanly for the German breakfast table and cubes well for platters. Its mildness makes it particularly appealing to children.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair with a German Riesling, a Pilsner, or a light red. Serve with dark bread, cured ham, radishes, mustard, and fresh fruit.
Storage
Wrap in wax paper and store in the refrigerator crisper drawer. Best consumed within two to three weeks of cutting.
Cheddar, Oak Smoked
Oak Smoked Cheddar is traditional Cheddar cold-smoked over oak, which infuses the cheese with a deep, woody aroma and a burnished amber rind. Cold smoking preserves the Cheddar’s texture while layering in smoke, rather than melting or altering the paste.
Flavor Profile
The oak smoke brings warm, woody, and faintly sweet notes that sit alongside the Cheddar’s natural tang rather than masking it. The exterior carries the most concentrated smoke flavor, which mellows toward the center. The texture remains firm and sliceable, and the finish is savory with a lingering campfire warmth.
How to Use
Oak Smoked Cheddar is excellent on burgers, where the smoke complements grilled meat. It also transforms macaroni and cheese, potato gratins, and savory tarts. On a cheese board, serve it in thin slices so the smoke does not dominate the other cheeses.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair with a smoky Scotch, a robust porter, or a peppery Syrah. Serve with grilled vegetables, cured meats, whole grain mustard, and dark bread.
Storage
Wrap in wax paper and store in the refrigerator, ideally away from delicate cheeses since the smoke aroma can transfer. Consume within three weeks of cutting.
Cheddar, Organic
Organic Cheddar is made from milk produced on certified organic pasture, where cows graze without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or routine antibiotics. Grass-fed milk carries a different fatty acid profile than conventional milk, and many tasters find the resulting cheese has a cleaner, more pronounced dairy character.
Flavor Profile
Organic Cheddar has a smooth, balanced flavor with a clean tang and a buttery richness. Pasture-raised milk often produces a deeper golden color from natural beta-carotene in the grass, particularly in cheeses made during the spring and summer grazing season. The texture is firm and sliceable, with a mellow finish.
How to Use
This is a versatile everyday Cheddar that works across the board. Slice it for sandwiches, grate it into cooking, cube it for snacking, or serve it on a cheese board. Its balanced flavor makes it approachable for all palates, including children.
Pairing Suggestions
Pair with a medium-bodied red, a crisp lager, or a dry cider. Serve with fresh fruit, whole grain crackers, and honey.
Storage
Wrap in wax paper and store in the refrigerator crisper drawer. Bring to room temperature 30 minutes before serving for the fullest flavor.
Cheddar, Sharp – Australia
Crumbly & creamy. Pair with honey-sweet Bosc pear slices, light water crackers, crisp Sauvignon Blanc or a bitter, semi-sweet Pale Ale.
