How To Create The Perfect Tassie Cheese Board

Eat and Drink

20 Feb

Written By Josie Rozenberg-Clarke

By Josie Rozenberg-Clarke

Want to make a cheese board that’s almost too impressive to eat? Stock it up with the island state’s finest.

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FIRST, CHOOSE YOUR CHEESE

Aim for a mixture of flavour profiles and textures when choosing cheeses for your board. At least three varieties is a good starting point: think a soft, a hard and a blue cheese.

Coal River Farm’s Triple Cream Brie is delectably creamy yet full-flavoured, while The Wicked Cheese Company’s Camembert is gooey and mushroom-y. For a hard cheese, you can’t go past Pyengana Dairy – its Traditional Cloth-Matured Cheddar is literally award-winning. Ashgrove’s Little Blue Lake is a mild blue while Grandvewe’s Sapphire Blue has a bit more punch. If you want to get adventurous and build on your core three, try the Bruny Island Cheese Co.’s award-winning raw milk cheese, Bream Creek Dairy’s Truffle Brie or Wicked’s Pepperberry Cheddar.

THEN, THE REST

Tasmania is known for its bountiful produce, so pick up some Huon Valley-grown apples to thinly slice and fan out on your cheese board, and place cherries or grapes in any gaps you have between cheeses.

When it comes to preserved fruit, Wild Pepper Isle spreads, like the Kunzea Jelly or Peppy Quince Paste with Tasmanian pepperberry, pair perfectly with bries and blues. Island Berries Tasmania also makes a Pear and Pistachio Paste that you’ll want to eat with a spoon.

For a bougee twist on your usual supermarket dips, splash out on some Tasmanian Duck Pâté from Hill Street Grocer. Classic crackers might be the obvious pick for scooping up all of this goodness, but for some local flair go for Tasman Sea Salt lavosh crackers – you can buy a giant bag from Salamanca Fresh or Hill Street.

If you and your guests are feeling carnivorous, grab some deli meats from Pandani Smallgoods. Located in the north coast town of Somerset, the brand’s Tassie-made salami and prosciutto is available at IGA and Hill Street stores around the state.

What’s missing? A touch of sweet to offset the savoury, of course. Choose a local honey for drizzling, and Tasmanian choccie to pop in between crackers and next to the blue cheese. Dark chocolate works well with cheese and wine, so go for the Anvers 64% Dark Chocolate or Federation Artisan Chocolate’s 74% Dark Cacao.

Pyengana Dairy Company (image: Tourism Australia)

DON’T FORGET THE DRINKS

Tassie wine is some of the best in the world, so it would be rude not to pick up a bottle or two to go with your cheese board. Grape-wise, the sweetness of Riesling offsets cheese nicely, especially if you’ve got a very flavourful blue on your board. Tasmanian’s signature grape, Pinot Noir, is the perfect cheese board tipple, or just pop a bottle of Tassie sparkling wine and cheers to your excellent cheese board making skills. Cin cin!