Why do we pair cheese with other food and drinks? Because it’s delicious! Cheese can certainly stand alone, but it’s often better enjoyed and enhanced by other products (and other products are enhanced by the cheese).
But cheese pairing can seem a little daunting. I’ve personally seen people get completely flustered because they didn’t have the exact pairing item listed for their cheese. To avoid this, we like to encourage people to pair our cheddar with whatever makes you happy. Still, sometimes clear direction can be helpful, too.
All pairings are, of course, subjective, but I personally feel that the ones below will bring out some of the deeper and underlying flavor aspects in our cheese. Because “sharp” isn’t a single taste - it’s a combination of myriad flavors and aromas that combine to replicate a flavor you’ve experienced before.
So eat cheese with what YOU like, but if you want a place to start, here are some ideas:
6 Month Cheddar + strawberry jam + chardonnay / Kolsch
6 month cheddar is buttery and grassy. My first instinct is to pair it with strawberry jam. The buttery notes play off of the sweet berries so well. I love a nice California chardonnay with this cheese, too, or a Kolsch if you’re more of a beer person.
1 Year Cheddar + oat biscuits + Riesling / shandy
1 year cheddar has that buttered popcorn flavor with a nice bit of tang at the end. I immediately want an oat biscuit with it, complemented by a late season riesling or a shandy style beer.
2 Year Cheddar + dark maple syrup + Sancerre / IPA
2 year cheddar is acid forward and minerally with a hint of sweetness. I want to embrace the sweetness more than anything, so dark maple syrup is the combo I think of. But for beverages I want to lean into the acidity, so I think a Vermont IPA would be great. And for wine, I want to extract the minerality, so I think Sancerre would best suit this cheese.
3 Year Cheddar + fennel salami + Lambrusco / lambic
3 year is a complex, savory beast of a cheese. It’s tropical, herbaceous, and savory. My first inclination is to pair it with cured meat, like a fennel salami. For beverages, I think a red sparkling wine like Lambrusco would work nicely and for beer a lambic comes to mind.
Smoked Cheddar + pickled butternut squash + porter / bourbon or scotch
Smoked cheddar makes me want vegetables. Pickled butternut squash is perfect with this cheese. No surprise that a porter, which is made with toasted and smoked grains, would be an ideal pairing. And although no particular wine comes to mind, I do like a brown liquor like bourbon or scotch.
Marshall’s Reserve / Clothbound Cheddar + honey mustard + dry sausage + sherry / pale ale
Marshall’s Reserve and Clothbound are cut from similar fabric. While I’m still trying to figure out the full depth of Marshall’s Reserve (it’s only recently been added to our cheddar line-up), I’ve paired many items with our clothbound over the years. First and foremost mustard comes to mind, a nice honey mustard to balance the savory flavors in each of these cheeses. A classic English-style pale ale will do nicely with either cheese, while sherry or other fortified wines can pull out the residual sweetness that lingers in the body of the cheese. A nice Landjaeger-style dry sausage can further draw out the savory flavors.
Beer Cheddar + sourdough or pretzel + orange marmalade + mustard
Our Beer Cheddar has a lot of bready notes to it, so I lean into a nice sourdough or a fresh hot pretzel. You can enhance the experience of sweet with a nice orange marmalade, or the taste of savory with a strong mustard.
Tractor Cheddar + water crackers + pepperoni
Finally Tractor, due to its unpredictable nature, is a cheese that goes with whatever you like. But if I were pressed, I’d go for something a bit on the milder side. Water crackers come to mind. I also think a familiar food item like pepperoni pairs well with this cheese.
