Cupcakes, cocktail sausages, sliders—miniature foods have an extra dose of adorability that makes them hard to resist. The same goes for small cheeses. They are just the right size to tear through in an evening, the smallest ones served individually, atop a salad, say. Slightly larger ones can be paired with fruit, some slivers of honeycomb and perhaps a Saison ale as dessert for a small group.
There is a relationship between the size of a cheese and its taste. It's difficult to get the crystalline sharpness of a long-aged cheddar or the forest-floor funk of a mottled blue cheese in a tiny format, but you can get a surprising range of flavors in a small package, from bright and tangy to nutty and sharp to buttery and ethereal.
With small cheeses, there are no tattered rinds to clean up, no worries about proper storage of leftovers. They are lovely in part because they are fleeting. Often beautifully packaged, they're also a smart dinner-party gift.
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