Cheese combinations and accompaniments

Just play around and you'll find something

Manchego with quince paste is classic and approachable, and as far as other pairings go, try tinkering with olives and other "pickles". You can adjust them to pair with the cheeses available to you at that time. For instance, we were trying to pair ricotta salata and found that some cumin flavored green olives we were playing with were a perfect match. Now, usually I like the ricotta salata with watermelon or prickly pear but in this case the olives were not that salty and the cumin spiked with a very small amount of cinnamon worked for some strange reason. Bruleeing, poaching or pickling fruit can give you more control of the final texture and flavor you're looking for. Like an aged English cheddar paired with bruleed apple slices. The caramelizing of the sugar and fruit gives the whole dish an added dimention flavor wise and something different than just throwing some fruit on a plate with cheese.

Manchengo with membrillo, marcona almonds, dried figs/fig almond cake
Talleggio with truffle honey
Parmesan again with honey
Bourbon prunes with a triple creme
Sharp cheddar and morels.....surprisingly not overwhelming
Tart Cherries, rehydrated dried with D'Affinoise
Fresh Chevre with pesto, toasted pinenuts, tomatoes
Fresh chevre with orange poached apricots, or cherries or the damson plum rhum sauce that BDL had on a tart
Maytag blue with apricots

there are some really fun crackers on the market with raisins/pecans/rosemary....very thin and full of flavor.....wonderful with the stinky creamy cheeses

Chevre mixed with a touch of honey, a little lemon zest, and some cracked pink peppercorns served on crostini is nearly a staple in our house.

a nice ripe brie topped with caramelised mixed roasted nuts on top set the cheese out to warm up and make a caremilised (sp) sugar , roast of some mixed nuts while thats cooking, add the two together and pour the hot mix over the ripe brie and let cool slightly

or strawberries on top of a runny camembert with a bbq chicken flavour rice cracker
or
big strong gutsy blue cheese topped with a warm syrupy dried apricot and ginger compote

fresh marscapone mixed with slow roasted tomatoes and a balsamic reduction made in to a ball
or
emmental with onion marmalade

My favourite cheese accompaniments are chutneys, fig or mango.

Oven dried fruits.

Cured meats.

Oatcakes, warm walnut bread. Any warm bread.

Wine, wine wine :D

There are so many amazing ideas here, I can't wait to try them all!

I've always liked fresh figs topped with mild goat cheese and wrapped with proscuitto.

I love asiago with fig jam.

Try adding coleslaw to cheese in little phyllo cups. Maybe parmesan with a sweet slaw or preferrably roquefort with purple slaw.