Ai contadini non far sapere Quanta e buono it cacio con le pere.  Don’t let the peasants know How good are cheese and pears.

Having found out for ourselves, we suggest a golden slice of Taleggio, Stracchino, or pale gold Bel Paese to polish off a good dinner, with a juicy Lombardy pear or its American equivalent, a Bartlett, let us say.

This celestial association of cheese and pears is further accented by the French: 

    Entre la poire et le fromage
    Between the pear and the cheese.

This places the cheese after the fruit, as the last course, in accordance with early English usage set down by John Clarke in his Paroemiologia: 

    After cheese comes nothing.

But in his Epigrams Ben Jonson serves them together.

    Digestive cheese, and fruit there sure will be.

That brings us back to cheese and pippins: 

    I will make an end of my dinner; there’s
    pippins and cheese to come.

    Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor

When should the cheese be served?  In England it is served before or after the fruit, with or without the port.

Following The Book of Keruynge in modern spelling we note when it was published in 1431 the proper thing “after meat” was “pears, nuts, strawberries, whortleberries (American huckleberries) and hard cheese.”  In modern practice we serve some suitable cheese like Camembert directly on slices of apple and pears, Gorgonzola on sliced banana, Hable spread on pineapple and a cheese dessert tray to match the Lazy Lou, with everything crunchy down to Crackerjacks.  Good, too, are figs, both fresh and preserved, stuffed with cream cheese, kumquats, avocados, fruity dunking mixtures of Pineapple cheese, served in the scooped-out casque of the cheese itself, and apple or pear and Provolone creamed and put back in the rind it came in.  Pots of liquored and wined cheeses, no end, those of your own making being the best.

 Champagned Roquefort or Gorgonzola

1/2 pound mellow Roquefort 1/4 pound sweet butter, softened A dash cayenne 3/4 cup champagne

With a silver fork mix cheese and butter to a smooth paste, moistening with champagne as you go along, using a little more or less champagne according to consistency desired.  Serve with the demitasse and cognac, offering, besides crackers, gilt gingerbread in the style of Holland Dutch cheese tasters, or just plain bread.

After dinner cheeses suggested by Phil Alpert are: 

FROM FRANCE:  Port-Salut, Roblochon, Coulommiers, Camembert, Brie,
Roquefort, Calvados (try it with a spot of Calvados, apple brandy)

FROM THE U.S.:  Liederkranz, Blue, Cheddar

FROM SWEDEN:  Hable Creme Chantilly

FROM ITALY:  Taleggio, Gorgonzola, Provolone, Bel Paese

FROM HUNGARY:  Kascaval