Selecting The Serving Platter
There are plenty of options on what to use as your cheese board serving tray. Think outside of the ordinary. As long as the item is food-grade safe, it is useable! Ideas include:
- Large wooden cutting board
- Wooden serving trays
And if youre already thinking about the holidays then a beautiful serving platter is a great gift! Check out my Gift Guide for the Home Cooks or Holiday Gift Guide for Foodies Under $15 for more ideas. Or any of these fun tools!
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Everything You Need To Know About Dutch Gouda Cheese
14.06.22
Gouda is a Dutch cheese that belongs to the uncooked pressed cheeses type. It is probably the most popular cheese in the Netherlands, along with Edam. This dairy product is made from pasteurized, skimmed whole cows milk. We recognize it thanks to the distinctive orange color of its rind, although other types of Gouda exist. Indeed, we can find this cheese with a white rind, a yellow rind and even a red rind. You didnt know that, did you?
In this article, the experts from Paroles de Fromagers tell you everything you need to know about gouda cheese. Lets learn how to store it properly, how to pair it, how to cut it and much more Here we go!
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Gouda Cheese Vs Cheddar: Which Is Better
Since they share many similarities, it is very difficult to determine which one is the better choice. However, in some cases, one of them might be the more suitable choice than the other.
For instance, if you need cheese for melting, it would be better to opt for Gouda. This would also be the case if you are choosing cheese for pizza.
On the other hand, if you want to add some cheese to your sandwich or burger, then Cheddar might be more compatible.
However, they are commonly used as substitutes for one another. Therefore, many times, choosing which one will depend on your taste. Some people prefer sweeter types of cheese, while others would rather go for salty cheese with hazelnut flavors.
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Spell And Check Your Pronunciation Of Gouda Cheese
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What Kind Of Meats To Use
Just like the cheeses, you can choose whatever meats you like! I went with some good quality pepperoni, varieties of salami, and sausage that I had partially sliced. Again, check out your deli section and find what will work best for your guests.
I also like to add prosciutto, not in my photos today. The trick with adding meats to your board, is keep them in groups. See my photo above and below. Some of the salami near the blue cheese, I folded lightly in half for fun. The pepperoni and other salami pieces are nicely fanned out, laying flat on the board.
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Sargento Sliced Gouda Natural Cheese 10 Slices
Semi-soft texture, with a mild, nutty and buttery flavor, our Gouda natural cheese slices add interest to otherwise ordinary sandwiches and are particularly good with an earthy dark bread. Pair with smoked ham and apple butter for a sandwich thats unlike anything else.
- Sargento® Gouda Cheese slices pair well with smoked ham and apple butter for a sandwich thats unlike anything else.
- This 7 oz. package comes with 10 slices of Gouda cheese perfect for grilled cheese sandwiches and the occasional appetizer.
- 100% Real, Natural Cheese uses ingredients like, cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, and annatto a plant-derived vegetable color.
- Easy-close FreshLock® packaging helps keep cheese fresh longer, but use within five days upon opening for maximum freshness
- Our Familys Passion Is Cheese
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How To Make Gouda Cheese
wikiHow is a wiki, similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 10 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 9,089 times.
Making your own cheese is extremely time consuming. You may need to buy unusual ingredients and specialist equipment just to produce something that is readily available commercially. If, despite all this, you are determined to try to make Gouda Cheese at home, heres how you can do so and get the same taste youd find in shops. Get started with step one below.
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What Is Smoked Gouda
Gouda is a nice, semi-hard yellow cheese that is made from cows milk. The younger the cheese, the milder, smoother, and softer the cheese will be. With age, the Gouda takes on a stronger flavor and becomes harder. It has a smooth texture, and the flavor is a bit nutty and sweet. Gouda is one of the most popular cheeses in the world, likely due to its friendly flavor. Its also delicious in a variety of recipes.
Smoked Gouda has that added element of smoky goodness to it, and it can either be purchased pre-made from the store, or you can smoke it yourself. For our purposes, were going to buy regular Gouda at the store and cold smoke it on our smoker.
How To Cut Out Slices Of Gouda Cheese
- How To Cut Out Slices Of Gouda Cheese
Gouda cheese is a variety which hails from the Netherlands, specifically in a city there called Gouda. It is typified by a creamy mild flavor, which comes from a hormone that is rich in Vitamin K2. It is said that ingesting this hormone in Gouda cheese can deter the growth of cancer in a human body, and also keep the arteries in the heart from going hard. This is a flexible type of cheese, which you can serve and eat in many different ways. We will see here about how to lay this out in pieces using a sharp knife and a cheese cutting board.
The age of the cheese decides how easy it will be to cut. A block of this cheese is usually aged from several weeks to several years before they sell it. If it is fresh then it will be proportionately soft, and you can cut that with a wire slicer. If you have one of the more mature verities, a sharp knife and cheese cutting board must be used. A yellow cheese, Gouda is made out of cows milk in and outside the Netherlands, which as mentioned, is where it originated. The mild flavor works out pretty good for sandwiches, or on tasting platters.
So get a cheese cutting board, slicer, knife, and cutting glove. Then follow the instruction given below to set out your Gouda cheese in slices.
Cutting soft Gouda
Cutting Aged Gouda
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The Ultimate Charcuterie Board
The ultimate charcuterie board, or cheese board, is just what you want to serve if you are having people over. Comprised of a flavorful combination of cheeses, meats, fruits, nuts, breads, crackers, and condiments, there are limitless combinations for your guests to snack on. A charcuterie board also makes a beautiful centerpiece on your table, colorful and brimming with tasty treats. While there is a lot of variety to be found on cheese boards, they are fairly easy to put together and are a great addition to other traditional appetizers.
Roasted Vegetable Grilled Cheese
Ingredients
Red bell pepper : 1, sliced mushroom: 2 Cups, white onions : ½ Cup, olive oil: 1 tbsp., thick slices of bread: 4, pepper and salt: A Pinch, Gouda Cheese: 3 Slices and Mayonnaise: 2 tbsp.
Toasty Sauce
Mayonnaise: 1 tbsp., BBQ Sauce: 1 tbsp. and hot Sauce : Splash
Method
Preheat the oven to 204 degrees Celsius .
Slice mushrooms, onion, and pepper. Throw all the sliced ingredients on a rimmed baking sheet.
Drizzle the ingredients with oil, sprinkle pepper, and salt.
Bake the vegetables until they are soft or for 15 minutes.
Combine all the sauce ingredients together.
Build two sandwich layers by layering a slice of Gouda cheese, a heap of roasted vegetables, and a ½ slice of cheese.
Layer the exterior of the sandwich with mayonnaise.
Cook the sandwich over a Panini press or a large skillet over medium heat.
Cook until the cheese has melted and the outsides of the sandwich are golden.
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Things To Keep In Mind When Slicing Cheese
To prepare beautiful and delicious cheeses for you outside of the best way to slice cheese, the timing of the cut is also quite important.
It is important to cut cheese in the last few minutes before the party starts.
This is especially true for cream cheeses, if you cut them first, they will stick together easily.
While hard cheeses, it is more likely to dry out if cut too soon before eating.
Also, temperature plays an important role. You should remove the cheese from the refrigerator at least thirty minutes before serving.
It is easier to cut hard cheeses while they are cold.
You should consider tools or cheese slicers that work well for hard cheeses and a knife will suit softer cheeses for cheese cutters.
Dont make your cheese pieces go crushed just for them.
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Tete De Moine Rosettes
In order to shave small ribbons of Tete de Moine, youll need a Girolle machine, which is a basic wooden tool with a crank knife that slices thin shavings of the cheese when rotated. These thin shavings can then be folded and arranged to look like small cheese flowers.
Start by cutting off the round-shaped rind off the top of the Tete De Moine wheel, exposing the paste underneath.
Set and pierce the wheel in the center, open paste side up, on top the the spike of the Girolle machine. Make sure that the wheel is completely pierced and firmly sits flat on top of the wooden base.
Connect the cutting knife portion of the Girolle machine and, using the handle, rotate it in either direction to create beautiful cheese curls.
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How To Actually Cut Different Kinds Of Cheese
If you arent sure how to cut and portion your block of cheese, Toth suggests studying it to get a sense of its texture and shape, and think about how to best cut it.
Its about functionality, Polowsky says: But then, theres the more nuanced, romantic side of whats going to look good.
Wheels can be evenly divided into wedges, blocks easily sliced into slabs, and triangular-shaped cheeses cut well into smaller triangles, for example. Runny and gooey cheeses, such as brie or Camembert, are difficult to cut into even pieces, so you can serve them in a full block or just cut in half.
Make surehowever you portionit includes at least a bit of the rind, Toth says about cheeses like manchego, brie, comte, or Gruyere.
In most cases, eating the rind is a personal preference, but keep in mind that some rindslike ones made of wax and clothmay not be palatable.
Depending on the type of cheese, Toth and Polowsky offer a few guidelines for cutting it up and serving:
Standard block with no rind: Simply cut it into cubes.
Crumbly cheeses: For aged gouda, feta, and Parmigiano-Reggiano, use a dull knife to pry off bite-sized chunks.
Simon Birt via Unsplash
Soft, wheel-shaped cheeses: Brie and Camembert may be ripe and runny, which makes them difficult to portion. Cutting these in half will offer an entry point. If its firmer, cut it into wedges.
Ball of mozzarella: Cut the ball in half, then slice it into half-moon shapes.
What Do You Use For A Charcuterie Board
You can make a delicious cheese board, but a true charcuterie board includes cured or smoked meats. Also, a variety of dips and jelly or preserves are on a charcuterie board. Add some of these:
- Jalapeno pepper jelly
I fold charcuterie meats a few different ways. Here are some ideas, but let your creativity shine! Fold and arrange the items on your cheese board however you prefer.
For larger and thin slices of meat, I fold them in half, and then in half again. As a result, they are in a triangle shape. Or, you can fold them in half, and then roll them up to form a small cone.
For hard meats such as salami, I simply slice them into thin rounds.
Just as with the cheese, space permitting, have your meats appear more than once on the board.
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Cheese Knife Guide: Soft Cheese
Examples : Brie, Burrata, Chèvre, Camembert, Coupole, Ãpoisses, Feta, Gorgonzola, Labneh, Mozzarella, Roquefort, Ricotta, Taleggio, etc.
The first part of the cheese knife guide is about the knives for Soft Cheese.
Soft cheeses are creamy & buttery. They tend to stick onto the knives. This nature does make them easy to cut through. But at the same time, they make it a bit troublesome to pull the blade out after slicing. So, to cut and maintain the shape of soft cheese, youll need specific kind of cheese knives :
-
Soft Cheese Knife
If you want a knife for slicing soft cheeses, then a Soft Cheese knife is one of the solutions for you.
This knife comes with a flat head. The blade of the knife has holes so that the cheese it chops does not stick onto it.
As a result, this knife can chop without damaging the shape of the soft cheese. The holes over its blade also help you to wipe the juicy cheese from the knife easily.
Best for : Roquefort, Brie, Camembert, Mozzarella, Taleggio.
The pronged knife has a tip like a fork. The rest resembles closely to a soft cheese knife. The benefit a Pronged knife offers is, you can chop a soft cheese or semi-soft / semi-hard cheese. Also, you can pick up the slices using the forks head as well.
Best For : Brie, Camembert, Feta, Gorgonzola, Raclette, Halloumi, Ãpoisses, Taleggio
-
Slim Blade Knife
As the name suggests, a Slim Blade Knife comes up with a narrow surface and sharp edge. So it can easily get through sticky cheese.
Dutch Gouda Continues To Be A Favorite And Heres Why
Gouda From The Netherlands is one of the worlds most popular cheeses, and one of Hollands most renowned exports. Its also a huge category that encompasses many styles, from artisanally-produced farmhouse cheeses to factory-made wheels. The format of Gouda can be small, gigantic or somewhere in between. Wheels can be crafted with cow, sheep or goats milk. For a cheese with such truly diverse varieties, one thing is consistent when it comes to Goudaits a true crowd-pleaser. Kids, grownups, cheese lovers and devoted curd nerds seem to agree that this cheese is often fantastic and definitely craveable.
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Salt And Moisture Diffusion
Brining of Gouda cheese takes place by immersing the cheese loaves in a strong salt solution, typically about 18% NaCl . During the brining process cheese loaves absorb salt, concomitantly a considerable amount of moisture is lost. Since the process of salt uptake and moisture loss takes place at the edges of the loaves, steep salt and moisture gradients develop between the surface and centre of the cheese that persist during the rest of the production and remain during ripening. With respect to taste attributes the moisture and salt content in the centre is relevant. Moreover, different brining/drying combinations result in approximately the same moisture and salt content, causing differences in taste. Understanding of the local behaviour of salt/moisture inside the cheese throughout the brining process and during storage is therefore important.
The cheese is approximated as a porous matrix containing a mixture of water and salt . The general MaxwellStefan transport equation for a solution in a porous matrix is given by Equation 24.1 :
where R is the universal gas constant, T is the temperature and a is the activity, which is defined as the molar concentration x multiplied by the activity coefficient . The activity of the salt solution is described by the Debye-Hückel relations .
The molar flux of component i is defined in Equation 24.3:
Timothy P. Guinee, Patrick F. Fox, in, 2017
Cheese Faqs Ep : How To Cut And Serve A Wedge Of Gouda
It seems like something that should be obvious. It seems like it shouldnt even be a questionso much so that were often too embarrassed to ask it at all.
Heres the thing, though: you get home with a few pieces of cheese to share, but the beautiful wedge of aged gouda you bought suddenly looks clunky, unwieldy. Its delicious, but you cant really cut it into cubes or cracker slices like you did with the cheddar or the pepper jack. The brie and blue can be presented as-isyour guests can handle those with a knife or even a spreader if the cheese is soft enoughbut this gouda is too hard to expect guests to cut it for themselves. What do you do with this thing?
You ask your friendly neighborhood cheesemonger for advice, of course! Here are three simple approaches you can handle at home without any special equipment beyond a kitchen knife and a cutting board.
1. When life gives you wedges, make more wedges!
Just cut that beauty in long, thin triangles running the length of the original wedge. You can remove the rind on top and bottom, if youd like, but leave the rind on the back edge. This works particularly well with a wedge thats thick enough to offer long isosceles triangles with a decent-sized base of rind. If the wedge is too thin to begin with, your triangles will also come out looking a bit spindlymore cheese stick than triangle.
2. Radial cuts radiate joy!
3. Crumblers gonna crumble.
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