I actually grew up disliking cheese. Thanks to my Asian parentage (cheese is not a thing in China) and public school lunches, I only knew cheese in?Kraft singles form and square pizza slice topping form.
When I got to college, however, my cheese horizons were expanded thanks to some food-loving roommates. After graduation, I moved to Rochester and basically ate my way through Wegman’s incredible cheese selection.
Though fine chocolates are often sold with nice cheeses, it had never occurred to me to eat the two together. As in, in the same bite together.
This waxing rhapsodic post about pairing chocolate and cheese on the Kitchn, however, sent me rushing to top a chip of 64% Valrhona from my candy stash with a chunk of creme fraiche cheese from the fridge (how’s that for a foodie snobby sentence?).
The result was funky and sweet. While it was an interesting experiment, I don’t think the sum was greater than the parts. I may try it again the next time I impulse buy a chunk of fancy cheese, but for now, I’ll be consuming separately.
Have any of y’all ever tried the chocolate + cheese combination? Am I just picking the wrong chocolate or cheese for it?
I’ve been wanting to work on this – evaluating different cheese-chocolate combinations. I think that goat cheese and a 60-70% cacao dark chocolate work together nicely.
Don’t even want to try cheese and chocolate together!
Goat cheese and chocolate? Well, I’m dubious, but let us know how it works out. Chocolate and yoghurt good, chocolate and cream cheese good, and Trader Joe’s 73% goes with both mozzarella and sharp cheddar, at least while I’m drinking rye whiskey.
However, I once had a massive piece of chocolate cheesecake at Pischelle’s bakery in West Haven Ct, one of the truly top Italian bakeries in the nation. The had dipped the WHOLE THING in real chocolate. It was the early 90’s and I ate the WHOLE THING. Amazing. Beyond amazing. I ate nothing the rest of the day; I ate nothing the entire next day. I remember on the third day I had something with my coffee, but can’t tell you what it was. I was afraid to ever have another piece of that cheesecake. That stuff is dangerous.