The one essential cheese for your Christmas cheeseboard: according to James Martin
The TV chef on the cheese no Christmas cheeseboard should be without – and the best things to go with it.
The TV chef on the cheese no Christmas cheeseboard should be without – and the best things to go with it.
A cheeseboard at Christmas is as seasonal as Christmas pudding and mince pies.
But chef and TV presenter James Martin has revealed that there is one cheese that always takes pride-of-place on his board every festive season – and never lasts into the new year.
“Vacherin Mont D’or,” he tells Saga. “There’s never any left. It’s very famous and very, very relative to Christmas.
“It’s usually in a wooden box with a clear film on it and it’s firm on the top, but when its warmed up, at room temperature or in an oven, it’s like a cheese fondue. It goes lovely and gooey in the middle and then you spoon it out.”
Is a rich creamy cheese made from cow’s milk. It is only made between the 15 August and 15 March, in the Jura region of France, when the cows have come down the mountain from their high summer pastures.
Each cheese is wrapped in spruce bark and aged for at least 21 days on spruce shelves which gives it a slight resinous flavour.
You can eat it at room temperature or baked in the oven.
James recommends the traditional marrons glaces (caramelised chestnuts) to accompany it.
You can by it from Marks and Spencer and independent cheese shops.
The host of James Martin’s Saturday Morning certainly knows his dairy. His book Cheese has 100 recipes which make the most of the UK’s favourite ingredient.
If you fancy a twist on a traditional board, you can try his Best-ever Cheeseboard recipe which is great for anytime of year.
But if you are sticking with a traditional cold cheeseboard for Christmas, then what are his essential choices?
James says there are three must-have cheeses.
His number one Christmas choice is the Vacherin Mont D’Or discussed above.
For James, the board must have a hard cheese. “Cheddar is one cheese I can’t say no to, he says. “A good bit of cheddar like a Montgomery mature cheddar. I’ll start at one end and meet myself at the other.”
But if you want something continental, he recommends a Comte, from France, or a Manchego, from Spain.
“Like the cheddar, they all have that unique saltiness, the crystallisation that I love,” he says.
Montgomery Cheddar is a traditional, cloth-wrapped, unpasteurised Cheddar cheese, made in Somerset.
A blue cheese is the third essential cheese for a cheeseboard for James. He says a classic quality Stilton or his other favourite, a Torta di Dolcelatte (or Gorgonzola) made by layering the cheese with mascarpone.
“It’s a lot creamier,” he explains. “And what’s so great about it, is it goes really well with figs and you can use it in salads afterwards too.”
Torta di Gorgonzola, Waitrose. RRP: £4.70
James says he has all the traditional accompaniments on his board.
“Grapes, celery, figs,” he says. “But I also have membrillo, the classic Spanish quince jelly. I always have that with a cheeseboard as well.
“Membrillo traditionally goes with Manchego but it’s also fantastic with Stilton and Cheddar. It’s fantastic and deserves a place with your cheeseboard.
Leftover membrillo
If you have any Quince membrillo left over, James says it’s easy to use up.
Take some puff pastry, spread it all over with a bit of membrillo, then slice the apples on the top, sprinkle it with sugar and then roast it in the oven. It cooks in about 15 minutes or so. Just make sure it’s really thin.”
James says he has both.
“If it’s Montgomery cheddar, then it’s crackers with lots of butter and cheese. I am usually a bread person, but with cheddar it’s got to be a cracker.
“I go for Jacobs crackers, nothing fancy, it has to be a plain cracker, to let the cheese do its thing.
“And I can’t eat it with just cheese, it’s got to have butter on it.”
“Yes,” he says. “I would put butter with everything to be honest. But you get really good butter and you get really poor butter.
"So it’s all to do with the taste as with anything else."
James Martin’s favourite butter
My favourite butter in the UK is Netherend Butter, which is made in Gloucestershire, that would be my favourite, I love it. I know the guys who make it, it’s fantastic.”
“I drink white wine with cheese, I’m not a port or sherry man, perhaps a bit of brandy, I enjoy it, but it wouldn’t be one I drink with cheese.
“I would keep on with the wine that’s already open. If you are enjoying it why change?”
“People’s tastes change,” says James. “As I’ve got older I appreciate the tastes of the cheeses more. I think your taste buds change, they mature, you mature, your knowledge gets better, and I think that accumulation of knowledge with everything else comes across in your tastes.
“I also think we appreciate the conviviality of joining together around a cheese board and it brings back memories, from your childhood, from so many things.
“I grew up on Dairylea triangles, but my mum was a good cook and although we couldn’t afford much, she would save up and get a good bit of cheese.”
James is full of ideas if you’ve got any cheeses from your cheeseboard left after Christmas.
“If you are going to use it for leftovers then fondue,” he recommends. “That’s always fun, a little bit of white wine, some milk or cream and you can make a nice little fondue.
”Or if you’ve got any cheddar left, it makes an amazing rarebit.
"You can use it on toast with a bit of chutney or on bacon for breakfast, but the most famous was from the late great Gary Rhodes who came up with the dish, Smoked Haddock Welsh Rarebit, and it’s a classic.”
James says the Brits love their cheese as much as ever and many farms around the UK are diversifying to make great new cheeses.
“We’ve got great dairy and because of that we’ve got great milk, we’ve got great butter and we’ve got great cheese,” he says.
“There’s a lady making halloumi in Yorkshire, there’s a pecorino guy in Yorkshire, there’s a buffalo mozzarella guy in Essex and in Hampshire now. Our pasture is as good as Italy and France, so why shouldn’t there be mozzarella from the UK or any other cheese?”
Cheese by James Martin (RRP: £25, Quadrille)
(Hero image credit: Getty)
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