This is one of my favorite day-after party recipes, turning leftover cheese into a new meal unto itself, which I serve alongside a simple salad and some toasted bread or crackers. Yet it is elegant and simple enough that it often gets invited to the party, in which case there rarely is enough left to enjoy the next day. It can be a stand-alone hors d'oeuvres or an addition to a charcuterie board. I like to serve it with toasted baguette and/or GF crackers (you can see it in the background of my earlier Side Trip to Swedish Seeded Crackers), some cornichons or pickled onions, and mustard and/or spiced jam. It is delicious and life changing for cheese lovers!
Literally meaning “strong cheese”, the origins of Fromage Fort are unclear, but it likely came from the countryside in Burgundy or the Loire Valley. As it was developed as a way to use food rather than letting it go to waste, the recipe is more a guidelines on how to make it rather than a true recipe — flexible around what you have on hand and your taste. Each time you make it, you can have a slightly different outcome.
Feel free to experiment by throwing in some fresh herbs, or trying other liquids, such as kirsch, sherry, cognac, cassis, or cream. If you've got none of those, just use water. In terms of cheese, anything goes: Gruyère, Emmental, Comté, Camembert, Brie, Parmesan, cheddar, generic Swiss, blue cheese (although go lightly with the blue) and/or goat cheese. Ideally you want 2-3 different cheeses, with a mix of hard and soft. While the hard is mandatory, you can sub in butter for the soft cheese. Or forego soft altogether and up the liquid. Really, anything goes!
If you do not want to buy full blocks, many markets sell small pieces of cheese, often found in a basket in their cheese section.
Fromage Fort
½ pound mixed cheese pieces, ideally a mix of hard and soft, cut into chunks*
¼ cup dry white wine or apple cider, plus a few tablespoons more if needed
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard or 1 clove garlic, minced
Pepper to taste
Salt to taste
*Add 2 tablespoons room-temperature butter if none of the cheeses are soft. Alternatively, you can add more liquid to make the mixture creamier.
Put hard cheese into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times until broken down into crumbles. Add the softer cheese pieces and/or butter, mustard or garlic, and ¼ cup wine or cider. Add a pinch of pepper
Process mixture until it is creamy, about 30 seconds. Taste, and add more liquid if not creamy enough, and salt and more pepper to taste, if wanted. Give it another pulse.
Transfer fromage fort to an airtight container to store until you are ready to eat. It will store for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
Serve it with toasted baguette and/or GF crackers, some cornichons or pickled onions, and mustard and/or spiced jam. You can also spread it on bread and broil it for a few minutes until golden and bubbly.
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