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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]

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.

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.

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.

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.

Le Jersey du Fjord won the bronze medal at the World Jersey Cheese Awards in the US. (Table agroalimentaire du Saguenay)

Un fromage à pâte ferme
Raw milk, firm cheese.
Fromagerie Hamel Catalog: Perfumed with the aromas of the sea and an exotic zest of orange, Jersey du Fjord cheese is made from raw cow milk by Les Bergeries du Fjord, located in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. Jersey du Fjord is a Cheshire type of cheese.

134, rue Atwater +1-514 932-4653
In the Atwater Market, Fromagerie Atwater is a big shop, and has a large variety of cheese available, including some tasting stations on weekends. For long-distance travel, they can vacuum pack the cheese which is not always necessary, but sometimes good to have.

In Winter 2009, when the suddenly popular Le Cendrillon - St-Raymond-de-Portneuf cheese was very hard or impossible to find in most Montreal shops, this cheese shop always seemed to have it in stock.

The Atwater Market is three or so blocks from metro Lionel-Groulx.

220, rue Jean-Talon Est, +1-514-272-1161
Incredible choice of cheeses, includes local Quebec cheeses.
Near Marché Jean-Talon and the metro Jean Talon (and across from an excellent restaurant Le Petit Alep), this is another great store to visit. They also have a small seating area at the back where they serve platters of cheeses. And it is worth visiting to explore the best market in Montreal - the Jean Talon market. Fromagerie Hamel has multiple locations. The Jean Talon shop is large, and there is a smaller shop at Atwater Market also.