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Budgeting amounts for cheese varies a lot with the type of cheese, and whether there is food before or after the tasting.

Given all that, some numbers that might work: around 18-20 grams/person/cheese, and a total of around 180-200 gms/person, followed by a small dinner. The higher numbers will most likely result in some left-overs. Other sources have suggested 10-40 gms/person/cheese, and 75-200 gms/person total, so this might depend on group appetites.

So, for creamy, soft cheeses, the higher amounts are appropriate, while the lower amounts should be applied to firmer, more intense cheeses. For 10 people, this means a total of 2 kilos will provide a good buffer, with some left-overs. Six different cheese would offer a good variety, which means around 300 to 400 gms of each cheese. For the board below of 7 cheeses, 250-350 gms per cheese would be appropriate.

1: Le Fleurmier de Charlevoix
2: Belle de Jersey - Saguenay

3: Tomme du Maréchal - Buckland
4: Le Cendrillon - St-Raymond-de-Portneuf
5: Barre a Boulard - St-Raymond-de-Portneuf

6: Bleu d'Élizabeth
7: Bleu Bénédictin - St-Benoit-du-Lac

[Dec 2009]

1: Belle de Jersey - Saguenay
2: Jersey du Fjord - Saguenay

3: Baluchon Biologique - Ste-Anne-de-la-Perade

4: Tomme du Maréchal - Buckland
5: Le Cendrillon - St-Raymond-de-Portneuf
6: Barre a Boulard - St-Raymond-de-Portneuf

7: Bleu d'Élizabeth
8: Bleu Bénédictin - St-Benoit-du-Lac

9: Fromage en Grains - St-Guillaume (to be eaten within 2 days of purchase).
This is a snacking cheese, can start with this, end with this, and nibble at any time.

See Cheese Tasting - Board 2 for how much amounts to budget for cheese tastings.

Plain, dried tomato (tomate sècheés), and pesto flavored cheese curds (fromage en grains). From La Maison du Cheddar. They also sell them in a cone for snacking, and by the kilo. Best eaten when fresh.

Cuisine du Quebec info:

Fromage fermier de chèvre affiné 3 mois.
Pâte demi-ferme à croûte naturelle
Lait de chèvre entier, cru

Ripened 3 months, semi-firm with natural rind. Raw goat's milk cheese.

Produced by: Chèvrerie du Buckland.

The picture is of the farmer selling the cheese from his car, on a makeshift, temporary table in the Jean-Talon market. There were younger cheeses available (small rounds in the basket), as well the aged Tomme du Maréchal which is the main cheese on the table.

1311 avenue Van Horne, 514-904-0011
Near métro Outremont, La Maison du Cheddar serves fresh cheese curds - plain, and flavored with pesto, or with tomatoes. They also have a small seating area, and serve items like grilled cheese sandwiches.

Notre fromage en grains nous vient de la coopérative Agrilait de Saint-Guillaume. Affiné pendant la nuit, il nous est livré chaque matin au summum de sa fraîcheur. "Refined during the night, it is delivered to us the next morning, fresh"
La Maison du Cheddar fromage en grain - fresh cheese curds - fresh every day from St-Guillaume.

Comes in flavored varieties too - pesto, and tomato. Plain is definitely the best, though.The picture shows the shop area from where the cheese is served.

The cheese when fresh does "squeak" when you eat it, but it does not travel well. Even within one day of traveling in 30F weather, the cheese had lost it squeakiness. One web site suggested not putting it in the fridge as a way to maintain the squeak, maybe that is the way do it. Normally, it should stay fresh for around 48 hours. There are vacuum packed packages in the super-markets that have a week of life (as per the date stamped on them) - maybe those are better for eating a day or two later.

Abbaye De St-Benoît-Du-Lac: Opened in 1943, this cheese factory, run by the Benedictine monks of the Saint-Benoit-du-Lac Monastery in the Eastern Townships, produces an array of heavenly cheeses.

Bleu Bénédictin Pâte persillée, demi-ferme, fait de lait entier, avec croûte naturelle, affinée en surface et dans la masse avec le penicillium roqueforti. Meule d'environ deux (2) Kg avec croûte grise ou blanchâtre. La pâte demi-ferme est crémeuse surtout dans le centre de la meule. Odeur de champignon et saveur riche de crème liée à une petite touche de sel.

Fromage CDA: the Bleu Bénédictin has a soft melting center and a lovely lingering taste. Retaining its natural rind lends this cheese its wild mushroom aroma and woody taste.

fromages d'ici info: La Fromagerie du Presbytère, Sainte-Élizabeth de Warwick, Central Quebec.
Organic, semi-soft, raw-milk farm cheese with blue-veined interior. A natural rind with ochre-coloured spots and an interior with lovely blue veins, sometimes with a tinge of green due to the presence of Penicillium Roqueforti. Balanced salty flavour.

Bleu d’Élizabeth is an organic semi-soft cheese made from non-pasteurized milk with interior mould. Its natural rind is strewn with ochre-coloured spots and contains beautiful blue and sometimes greenish-coloured veins resulting from the presence of Pénicillium Roqueforti. The unique taste and perfect salt balance of this cheese is sure to please the most discriminating palate! This cheese is named after the place where it is produced.

Fromegerie F. X. Pichet Avec sa texture lisse et crémeuse, ce fromage de lait cru biologique.
Fromagerie Hamel Catalog: Un fromage à pâte demi-ferme à croûte lavée fait de lait cru

Raw milk cheese, semi-firm, with a washed rind. (Possibly comparable to the Oak Classique cheeses that are so plentiful in every Quebec grocery store?)

Barre à Boulard (Not sure if the farm is accurate)

Goat Cheese, Semi-Soft
This cheese log, ladled into a mold, is dense and sticky with a fruity flavour and a light taste of yeast. Its ivory rind contains a top-of-the-line yeast, with naturally-occurring blue mould which provides its rustic, full flavor.

Cuisine du Quebec: Pâte molle à croûte lavée.
Lait de vache entier cru.
Soft cheese, with a washed-rind. Raw cow's milk.

Le Belle du Jersey won the silver (argent) medal at the World Jersey Cheese Awards in the US. (Table agroalimentaire du Saguenay)
Un fromage à pâte semi-ferme à croûte lavée.
Semi-firm cheese, with a washed rind.