Introduction 1
What You Can Do In A Day 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Chapter 1: A Hard Look at Soft (And Blue) Cheese 5
Soften Up: Understanding the Soft Cheese Basics 5
Getting Fresh 7
Surface-Ripened Soft Cheeses 8
Bloomy-rind soft cheeses: Fluffy, furry, velvety rinds 9
Washed-rind soft cheeses: An odiferous array 10
Mold-ripened: Wrinkly soft cheeses 11
A Semi-Softie at Heart 12
Pressed, brined, and dry-salted fresh semi-soft cheeses 12
I'm (not) melting! Fresh semi-soft cheeses that stay in shape 13
Semi-soft rindless cheeses full of buttery flavors 14
Down to earth: Mushroomy, grassy-tasting semi-softs 14
Semi-soft washed rinds 15
Feeling Blue 16
Mellow blues 17
Blues with attitude 17
High-octane blues 18
Chapter 2: Grate Tastes: Hard Cheese 21
Hard to Beat: Understanding the Basics 21
Going Topless: A Rundown of Rindless Hard Cheeses 23
It's better buttery and mild 23
Going mild for rindless cheeses 24
Looking at Natural-Rind Hard Cheeses 24
Buttery cheeses with natural rinds 25
Earthy natural-rind delights 25
Natural-rind nutty cheeses 26
Bursting with flavor: Sharp natural-rind cheeses 27
Washed-rind and Wonderful Cheeses 28
Nice and nutty 28
Slightly stinky cheeses 29
Trying Out Coated-Rind and Clothbound Hard Cheeses 30
Coated-rind cheeses with a nutty flavor 30
Sharp to earthy coated-rind cheeses 31
Sweet, butterscotchy coated-rind cheeses 32
Chapter 3: Figuring Out What You Like 33
Discovering What You Like and Don't Like 33
Evaluating the Characteristics of Cheese 35
Using your common sense(s) 35
Ten "technical" (if sometimes odd) terms used to describe cheese 36
Taking the Cheese Challenge 37
Chapter 4: Crafting Your Cheese Plate 41
Where to Buy: Exploring Your Options 41
What's in store 42
Online offerings 44
To market, to market: Buying direct 47
Serving Basics 47
Cutting to the chase 47
Serving at the ideal temperature 49
Putting together a cheese plate 50
Arranging your items: General principles 50
Creating Great Plates 52
How much is enough? Deciding on serving size 52
Selecting cheeses for a plate 53
Arranging your plate 54
Putting Your Cheese to Bed: Successful Storage 55
Chapter 5: Cheesy Accompaniments 57
Picking Sides 57
Savory 58
Sweet 58
Composing the Components 59
Keeping it simple and other tips 59
Suggestions from your pantry 60
Cheesy Accessories: All about Knives and Boards 61
Knifestyles of the rich and famous 62
Chairman of the board 63
Chapter 6: Where to Go from Here 65
Taking Your First Steps 65
Visiting dummies.com 66
