How to taste cheeses: complete lesson
With the article on the importance of drafting a tasting sheet, we concluded our journey on How to taste cheese. Below we will collect all the steps and the rules to approach a cheese tasting in the right way. What we want to underline is that by studying these articles and by training you in recognizing the sensations that the cheese releases, you will not become professional tasters. For this there are professional courses and masters, but in our small way we have provided you with the most important tools to taste a cheese as it should be, to give value to the product you are facing and to transmit it to others. Knowledge of the world of food is one of the deepest cultures, to be cultivated, defended and transferred, because this important heritage is preserved and valued as it deserves.
1. How to taste cheeses: 8 rules
In the past cheeses were considered poor food and served with no care, perhaps next to salami and croutons. Today people, have finally recognized the great value they have.
Like for the wine, it is necessary to observe some rules before tasting cheese. In this way, the food you bring to table becomes culture, experience and emotion.
So we want to explain some small tips to follow to taste cheese…
2. How to taste cheese: sight
Tasting cheeses means analyzing a small casket of flavors and aromas simply referring to our senses: sight, touch, smell and taste. In the article “How to taste cheeses: 8 rules to follow” we gave you some tips to a proper tasting. We told about the importance of visual impact.With the sight we can already understand many things, but we need to know what to observe…
3. How to taste cheeses: touch
We started a journey to understand how to taste the cheeses properly. As we have already written in the article “How to taste cheese? First step:sight”, tasting cheeses means examining them through sight, touch, smell and taste. When approaching a cheese tasting you have to follow some useful tips for pleasant taste experience. After examining your cheeses through sight, the second step is the use of touch. In this phase we can understand many other things about cheese. But how do we proceed for a correct tactile and olfactory examination? Let’s find out together…
4. How to taste cheeses: the smell
Third step of our tasting cheese journey. After sight and touch now it’s time to smell. READ ALSO: “How to taste the cheeses: Sight” and “How to taste the cheeses: Touch“.
The smell is the third sense that we use to better understand the fascinating world of cheese. Keep in mind that the olfactory analysis is the most difficult aspect in cheese tasting. What do you have to do when when you smell cheese? Let’s find out right away…
5. How to taste cheese: Savor
Another step of our mini course on how to taste cheeses. We have seen that to taste cheeses we need all our senses. Before tasting we have to follow some tips (How to taste the cheeses: 8 rules to follow), then we have to use sight (How to taste the cheeses: the sight), after we have to touch them (How to taste the cheeses: the touch ) and in the end we have to analyze the smell (How to taste cheeses: smell).
Finally we arrived at the moment we waited for, the tasting. Are you curious to find out what to pay attention to when we taste a cheese? Let’s find out right away!
6. How to taste cheese: tricks and exercises
In the last article on how to taste the cheeses was the moment of tasting (READ ALSO: “How to taste cheeses: taste“). We have seen that we must recognize both the traditionally classified 4 flavors and the aromatic notes that the cheese releases. In this step we want first to talk about a fifth flavor that is not part of the canonical classification: umami. What is it? Where can we find it?
Then we will reveal a few little tricks to recognize the flavors when they are imperceptible. Because everyone can say that a spoonful of jam is sweet, or that an artichoke is bitter. What we want is to recognize the flavors, or rather their notes, when they are not the main actors. Let’s start…
7. How to taste the cheeses: the tactile sensacions in mouth
Another useful article on How to taste cheeses. We have seen every phase from the preparatory phase, to training of the palate, (READ MORE: “How to taste cheese in 8 rules” and “How to taste cheese: tricks and exercises”) passing through the tasting. We left the analysis of tactile sensations in the mouth and we want to conclude with a question: cheese crusts are eatable?
The tactile sensations in the mouth are those sensations that we feel and that do not concern flavor or aroma. In practice, the tactile sensation is what our mouth perceives with its sensitivity when it is in contact with a food: dry, rough, hard, grainy, these are to say the tactile sensations. Now let’s see in detail how this kind of sensory analysis is done and how it is important to understand something more about the cheese we eat…
8. How to taste the cheeses, final act: the tasting sheet
We arrived at the end of our mini-course on “how to taste cheeses”. Of course, it will not be enough to study the topics covered to become real cheese tasters. The purpose of our course was that those who approach a product so complex and at the same time common in our territory, do it in a conscious way.
The risk we run is to underestimate the importance and the weight that this food has in gastronomic and cultural history. The speech is similar to what we can do for a monument. In Italy we are so used to this kind of thing that we underestimate it in some way. Instead we must become aware of the fact that it is products to be protected and valued. Each tasting worthy of this name ends with the compilation of a tasting card. Let’s see what it is and why it is important…
