A seared pork chop glazed with chopped pear and syrup in a cast-iron pan, beside a halved raw pear, a small bowl of honey and a scatter of toasted walnuts on a wooden board

Cooking with Cheese Accompaniments: Uses That Earn a Place

Published 30 Sep 20266 min read

Filed under Vinegars

A cheese board leaves jars behind: half a pot of mostarda, a wedge of quince paste, the end of the honey, a bottle of balsamic, a sleeve of crackers and a few nuts. What each jar is made of decides where it goes in cooking and when. Sugar browns, pectin sets, acid sharpens, and crumbs and nuts give crunch. Sort the leftovers by those four jobs and the uses follow, along with the timing that keeps each one from burning, seizing or going soft. For the board itself, the cheese course accompaniments comparison covers the styles, and the cheese plate math guide covers how much to buy.

Sort the jars by the job they do

On a board, these jars supply contrast: sweetness against salt, acid against fat, crunch against a soft paste. They bring the same contrasts to a pan. The difference in the kitchen is heat, and heat treats each job differently. Sugar in honey and jam browns fast and then burns, so it goes in late. Fruit pastes soften with heat and firm again as they cool, so they get loosened with liquid and served warm. Traditional balsamic is made to be used as a finishing condiment, so it goes on at the end. Crunch goes soft under steam, so crumbs and nuts go on last and uncovered.

Accompaniment	Its job	When it goes in	Recipe to start with
Honey	Sweeten and brown	Last few minutes of roasting; stirred into dressings off the heat	hot honey fried chicken recipe
Mostarda	Sweeten and sharpen	Chopped into pan juices after searing; stirred into dressings	mostarda and fruit pastes recipe
Quince and fruit pastes	Set and gloss	Melted with a splash of liquid at the end; served warm	dried fruit compote recipe
Jam and marmalade	Sweeten, set and brown	Thinned and brushed on in the last ten minutes	jam and preserves recipe
Traditional balsamic	Sharpen and finish	Raw, in drops, after cooking	risotto alla milanese recipe
PGI balsamic	Sharpen	Deglazing, dressings, reductions	house vinaigrette recipe
Savory crackers	Crunch and salt	Crushed over a gratin for the final minutes, uncovered	crackers and flatbreads recipe
Nuts	Crunch and body	Toasted, then scattered at the end or pounded into a sauce	romesco recipe

Honey: add it late

The National Honey Board's advice for baking with honey in place of sugar includes lowering the oven by 25°F to prevent over-browning. The same caution applies to savory cooking. Honey browns readily, and a glaze painted on at the start of a long roast can darken too far before the meat is done. Brush it onto roasting carrots, squash or chicken thighs for the last five to ten minutes instead. Off the heat there is no timing to worry about: a teaspoon in a vinaigrette rounds out sharp vinegar, and the vinaigrette ratio guide gives the proportions. Bee Squared's orange blossom honey (shop Bee Squared orange blossom honey) is one to try. The honey guide covers how varieties differ.

Mostarda: a pan sauce in a jar

Mostarda is candied fruit sharpened with mustard. The Mantua Chamber of Commerce describes the Mantuan style as a single fruit at a time, traditionally apples, quinces or pear quinces, cooked with sugar and liquid mustard. That combination is what makes it useful in a pan, since mostarda already does the work of a fruit sauce and a mustard sauce at once.

The simplest use takes two minutes. Sear a pork chop or a duck breast, pour off most of the fat, and add a spoonful of finely chopped mostarda and a splash of its syrup to the pan with a little water or stock. Scrape up the browned bits, let it bubble until it coats a spoon, and pour it over the meat. The syrup also goes into a dressing for bitter greens, where the mustard heat stands in for Dijon. Casa Forcello's pear mostarda (shop Casa Forcello pear mostarda) is a single-fruit jar that suits both, and the Casa Forcello producer guide introduces the maker.

Quince and fruit pastes: melt, then serve warm

Quince is high in pectin, the fruit fiber that gels with sugar and acid, which helps quince paste set firm enough to slice; a study in the Czech Journal of Food Sciences measured pectin across quince cultivars and found the contents high. That gel is what makes a fruit paste useful in a pan. Cut a slice into small cubes, add it to the pan after searing lamb or pork with a tablespoon of water or vinegar, and stir as it melts into a glossy glaze. The glaze firms again as it cools, so serve it warm and loosen leftovers with a little more liquid when reheating. Cubes of paste also go into a grain salad or onto a roasting tray of root vegetables in the last minutes. The dried fruit compote recipe uses the same set-and-gloss logic with dried fruit.

Jam and marmalade: the fastest glaze

Jam and marmalade combine the two jobs above: sugar that browns and pectin that sets. Thin two tablespoons with a tablespoon of vinegar or citrus juice so the glaze spreads and does not burn, and brush it onto chicken or salmon for the last ten minutes of roasting. Marmalade brings bitterness from the peel as well as sweetness, which suits fatty meats. Brins' lemon saffron marmalade (shop Brins lemon saffron marmalade) is one to try. The jam, preserves and marmalade guide explains how the styles differ in texture, which decides how much liquid each needs.

Balsamic: the grade sets the job

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena DOP is aged at least 12 years, or at least 25 for Extravecchio. Its consortium suggests the 12-year vinegar for fresh salads and meat carpaccio, or as a finishing touch on mature cheeses and fresh fruit, and the Extravecchio for risottos and braised red meats, or with a piece of extra mature Parmigiano Reggiano to finish a meal. It goes on in drops, off the heat. A few drops over a finished risotto alla milanese show the idea (risotto alla milanese recipe).

Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PGI is the cooking bottle. Its production rules require at least three years in wood for the "invecchiato" or aged label, and a blend of cooked or concentrated grape must with wine vinegar, with a minimum share of each set by the rules. That is the vinegar for deglazing a pan, a weeknight vinaigrette, or reducing by half into a syrup for roasted vegetables. Condiment balsamics from Reggio Emilia, such as Cavalli's (shop Cavalli Riserva Nando balsamic), are a third option. The balsamic vinegar guide sets out every grade, and the guide to how traditional balsamic is made follows the vinegar through the barrels.

Crackers and nuts: crunch goes on last

Savory crackers are seasoned breadcrumbs that happen to be shaped. Crush the last of a box and scatter the crumbs over a gratin, baked pasta or roasted cauliflower for the final ten minutes, uncovered, so the steam escapes and the crumbs toast. Cheese crackers bring their own salt and fat, so taste a crumb of Rustic Bakery's cheese coins (shop Rustic Bakery savory cheese coins) before adding butter. The Rustic Bakery producer guide covers the bakery, and the crackers guide covers styles.

Nuts from the board do two jobs. Toasted and chopped, they go on salads and roasted vegetables at the end. Pounded, they become the body of a sauce: walnuts in muhammara (muhammara recipe) and almonds or hazelnuts in romesco (romesco recipe). The nuts and seasoned nuts recipe covers toasting them properly.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com. Visitors can ask staff questions in the shop.