God how I love a cheese basket

A couple of years ago my father was diagnosed with heart disease.  His brother had been diagnosed about ten years before that.  And their father – my grandfather – had died of a heart attack twenty years previous.

So I don’t get to eat a lot of dairy.  My wife, bless her, watches my diet like a hawk.  We’ve cut red meat and dairy almost entirely out of our diets.  Our desserts are usually something like strawberries or cherries, or rarely a slice of wheat toast with Nutella.  I miss my cheese.

But I can still look and covet!  It’s what the internet is for, really, and when it comes to coveting a cheese basket, no one can match me.  I’m a professional.

The best place to check out is IGourmet.com, which lists the best cheeses seasonally and offers sample pairings for wine, beer, crackers, fruits and other items.  They have an entire cheese basket section, and are liberal with their advice.

For a summer cheese basket, their most highly recommended cheese is a Denhay English Cheddar, which they describe as “carefully matured and monitored until it is 11 months old when it is sold as premium West Country Farmhouse Cheddar.”  Cheddars are, of course, the backbone of the traditional English cheese basket, so it’s probably appropriate to begin there.

Other great summer cheeses as recommended by IGourmet are Beemster Classic Extra Aged Gouda, Farmhouse Kefalotiri (a Greek cheese made from sheep or goats that is pungent, less fatty than cow-cheese, and absolutely delicious), and Kerrygold Ivernia – my personal favorite.  Kerrygold Ivernia is described by IGourmet as “a ripe, hard cheese. Aged for three years, it is rich in elegant and complex flavors. Cut, grate, slice or shred Ivernia. It can be used similarly to any Italian hard cheese.”  Italian hard cheeses like true Parmasean are the standard by which all other hard cheeses are measured, and Kerrygold Ivernia absolutely holds up.  In spite of the hard, dry texture, it doesn’t seem to suck all the moisture from your mouth and somehow instead presents a more succulent, full-bodied flavor.  It is a perfect cheese basket inclusion for hot summer days, and one to be enjoyed best with a fine British pale ale.

Oh, how I miss my cheeses.  Just looking at the descriptions online has given me a hankering for cheeese, but the necessities of cardiovascular health shall, once again, win the day with me.  Alas!