Holiday cheese platter

[awakephd]

My family gathered for a late Christmas celebration this week, and I had 7 cheeses ready to share. Here are the varieties, described by their "clock" position:

1:00 - Gouda, 3 months old
2:00 - "Malembert," 7 weeks old
4:00 - Cantal, 8 months old
6:00 - traditional cheddar, 8 months old
8:00 - Caerphilly with olive oil and smoked paprika coating, 4 weeks old
10:00 - plain Caerphilly, 6 weeks old
11:00 - Montasio, 3 months old

All were good, and the cheddar was exceptional (if I do say so myself), but I was especially pleased by the Gouda -- after two years of making cheese, including at least three attempts at Gouda, this is the first one that has really come out right. Very smooth and flexible, mild but not simplistic flavor. All my previous efforts got too acidic and crumbly. I've got another half that I'm planning to try in another 3 months or so.

[Denise]

Looks lovely. A cheese for that mouth-watering plateful!

[Boofer]

Sweet!

How rewarding it must be for you to be able to bring together such a scrumptious array. Good job, Andy. Have a cheese.

Happy New Year!

-Boofer-

[MarshmallowBlue]

I thought at each hour of the day you added more cheese to the platter and ate nothing bu cheese for an entire day. Now I see it though. Anyways, here's a cheese for your cheeses.

[amiriliano]

Looks awesome!

AC4U!

[awakephd]

I thought at each hour of the day you added more cheese to the platter and ate nothing bu cheese for an entire day. Now I see it though. Anyways, here's a cheese for your cheeses.

Now that would be a great idea! There was quite a bit of cheese eating going on throughout the day, but there were also a few other things to eat ...

Thanks, all, for the affirmation and cheeses. The family seemed to like all of it, with the partial exception that only my sister likes camembert -- and she really liked this "Malembert." A few others gave it a try, but I think my sister and I ate the bulk of it. Fine by me ... ! But all the rest seemed to go fast, every time we made up a plateful.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

An outstanding collection.
Add another cheese.

[Al Lewis]

Beautiful job!!  AC4U!