The board for the whole house

Enough cheese to feed a room, with the terrine, the crackers and the preserves that belong beside them. Cheese keeps well, so a hamper this size is bought in December and eaten across a fortnight.

Who it is for

This is the hamper for the household that puts a board out and leaves it out – the in-laws on Christmas Eve, the neighbours who come round on the twenty-seventh, the office that wants one thing everybody can pick at. Cheese is the one Christmas gift nobody re-gifts. The wine is chosen for the food in the hamper rather than picked off a price list, and it is a grower’s bottle rather than a supermarket label.

Who makes it

We buy the British cheese direct from the dairies that make it – Westcombe in Somerset and Cropwell Bishop in Nottinghamshire. Clos Saint Sozy work in the Lot, in the south-west of France, in the traditional way. Somerset Charcuterie cure and air-dry everything themselves on the Mendips. Millers have been baking in Britain since 1875. We import these ourselves rather than buying through a wholesaler, which is why the hamper costs what it does. You can read how the protected designations work at the European Commission.

Packing and delivery

We pack this hamper in an 18-inch wicker hamper finished with raffia and a ribbon. Everything is packed by hand in Worcestershire on the day it leaves us, and nothing is made up in advance and left sitting in a warehouse. Order early for Christmas – December delivery slots fill from the middle of November, and the week before Christmas always goes first. We deliver across mainland UK and can send the hamper straight to the recipient with a handwritten card and no prices anywhere in the parcel. See the rest of the range on our Christmas gift hampers page.

How to serve it

Take the cheese out of the fridge a good hour before anyone eats it – cold cheese tastes of very little. Cut the soft cheeses in wedges from the centre and leave the hard ones whole with a knife beside them. Foie gras and terrine want to come out of the fridge fifteen minutes beforehand and be cut with a warm blade, onto toast or brioche rather than a cracker that fights them.