Honey and cheese: the pairings behind a festive cheeseboard

In the second century BC, Cato the Elder was already writing down the recipe for a Roman cake: fourteen pounds of fresh sheep’s cheese, four and a half pounds of honey, built up in layers in a pastry. Cheese and honey are no trend: they are one of the oldest pairings at the table. So, every December, the question: which honey with which cheese? Here are the House’s pairings, and how to build a festive cheeseboard that reads like a story.

Honey and cheese suit each other because they oppose each other. The salt of the cheese brings out the sweetness, and the honey rounds off whatever is sharpest. A fine pairing does not stack two flavours: it lets them talk.

Taste science has measured it. In 1997 Paul Breslin and Gary Beauchamp showed in Nature that salt suppresses bitterness far more than sweetness, so the sweet note stands out. On a salty cheese, bitterness recedes and the sweetness of the honey lengthens.

Our rule follows: one honey per family of cheese, chosen for what the cheese lacks. Our guide How to taste honey: 12 moments gives one of its moments to cheese; this is the long version, made for the festive season. The rule has one exception, kept for the end of the next chapter.

For a festive board, the House pairs Roquefort and blue cheeses with Jujubier Honey from Yemen, Comté and hard cheeses with Egyptian Black Seed Honey, fresh goat’s cheese with the Rose Aromiel from Russia, and Brie and creamy cheeses with White Honey from Kyrgyzstan.

Roquefort, Stilton and other blues: Jujubier Honey from Yemen

Roquefort has a royal history. In 1411 a charter of King Charles VI already protects it, “in a country where neither vine nor wheat grows”. A law of 26 July 1925 then gave it the first regulated appellation of origin for a commercial cheese.

Even its blue comes from the place: Penicillium roqueforti is prepared from strains isolated in the Combalou caves where it matures.

Britain has a blue with a surprise of its own: Stilton cannot be made in Stilton. Only cheese made in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire may carry the name, and the village lies in Cambridgeshire.

Against that salt, you need a honey that does not step back. The Jujubier opens on caramel, moves to warm wood and holds a very long finish. One drop on a Roquefort or a Stilton: the blue opens first, then the honey carries on. But a board that starts with its strongest has nothing left to tell. It needs a more patient cheese.

Comté, Cheddar and hard cheeses: Egyptian Black Seed Honey

A wheel of Comté takes more than 400 litres of milk, the milk of twenty Montbéliarde cows, then at least four months in the cellar. There is no industrial Comté: it is born in village dairies, the “fruitières”. Depending on maturation, its aromas run from hazelnut to pepper, by way of coffee.

It is that pepper which calls for the Black Seed Honey. Mahogany and dense, it opens on a deep sweetness and ends on a peppery note that comes from the flower: no seed is added to the jar. On a mature Comté, a farmhouse Cheddar or a sheep’s cheese, the two finishes answer each other. The plant, nicknamed “black cumin”, is in fact a cousin of the buttercup.

Fresh goat’s cheese: Rose Aromiel from Russia

Fresh goat’s cheese, lively and tangy, asks for fruit. The Rose Aromiel from Russia is not a rose honey: it is a preparation of acacia honey worked cold with rosehip, the fruit of the dog rose. Its colour comes from that fruit, not from a flower.

The acacia opens first, then the tender fruitiness of rosehip: on fresh goat’s cheese, acidity and fruit cross without covering each other. Never above 40 °C: its fragrance is volatile.

Brie and burrata: White Honey from Kyrgyzstan

Here is the promised exception: against a bloomy rind, we play echo rather than contrast. White Honey is a sainfoin honey harvested at altitude in the Tian Shan. A botanical surprise: sainfoin flowers are pink, yet its honey, crystallising naturally, becomes an ivory cream. Nothing is added, nothing whipped.

On a Brie or a burrata, its almost milky note extends the cream of the cheese. All that remains is to bring it all together on one board without getting lost.

One line per cheese, the honey that answers it and the gesture that makes the pairing work.

The table says what to serve, not in what order.

Take the cheeses out an hour and a half ahead, arrange them from mildest to strongest, and serve each honey in its own small dish, with its spoon.

Step one, time. The French dairy trade body advises letting cheeses come to life for at least 1 h 30 at room temperature. The honeys never go in the fridge.

Step two, the board. Wood, slate or marble. Avoid metal, which can taint cheese.

Step three, the order. From mildest to strongest, clockwise: burrata or Brie, fresh goat’s cheese, sheep’s cheese, Comté, then the blues. The honeys follow the same slope: White Honey, Rose Aromiel, Black Seed, Jujubier.

Step four, one spoon per honey. One knife per family of cheese, one spoon per jar: flavours stay clean.

Step five, measure. People often count 60 to 80 g of cheese per guest after a meal. For the honey, half a teaspoon per pairing: it underlines, it does not coat. One thing is missing, though, that your guests will look for without knowing its name: the crunch.

Between two cheeses, a coated almond refreshes the palate: Edam for salt, Salt & Smoke for fire, Chilli for heat.

The House has already married its honeys with its almonds: Black Seed with the Edam Cheese Coated Almonds, Jujubier with the Salt & Smoke Coated Almonds. On a board the frank salt of the Edam joins the Black Seed Honey beside the Comté, and the smoke extends the fire of the Jujubier next to the blues.

For palates that like the heat to rise, the Chilli Coated Almonds bring a robust, progressive note, without brutality. Each flavour comes in a 125 g bag at €19.90, or in a set of three, 375 g, at €36.90.

Almonds are tree nuts, and the Edam coating contains milk. All our pairings are gathered on the page Honey and almond pairings. A board like this can also be given, provided you choose the right box.

One box brings together the three honeys of the blue, the hard cheese and the cream: the Jujubier, the Black Seed and the White Honey. Three jars, three spoons.

Gift box · Blue, hard cheese, cream

The Ritual Box €79.90

Jujubier Honey from Yemen, Egyptian Black Seed Honey and White Honey from Kyrgyzstan: three 250 g jars in the signature presentation box, spoons included.

Discover the gift box

If fresh goat’s cheese takes pride of place, The Prestige Box swaps the Black Seed for the Rose Aromiel, in the black and gold box. Both boxes are €79.90; bought separately, their three jars cost €101.70. Free Mondial Relay delivery · France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Orders are usually prepared within 48 working hours, then delivered within 3 to 5 working days in France and Belgium.