We love cheese. We’re always thinking about pairing cheese with wine, cheese with beer, cheese with honey . . . Often, however, no thought goes into what the cheese is served on. Yes, plain table water crackers allow the flavor of the cheese (or savory food like Cole’s Trout) to shine – essentially functioning as a tiny edible plate. But recently we realized that there’s an overlooked pairing opportunity hidden beneath the cheese. So we asked Glenn and Jada, our cheese whizzes, to give us some cheese and cracker pairings. Their first effort was a winner: Margaret’s Artisan Bakery Date & Walnut Crisps with St. Marcellin.

Margaret’s, an Ontario bakery, uses 100% organic flour along with buttermilk, brown sugar, molasses and roasted malt and ample amounts of dates and walnuts to make their crisps. The dense, richly flavored, hard crackers provide the perfect foil for a creamy cow’s milk cheese like St. Marcellin. St. Marcellin has a rich texture balanced by slight acidity and an assertive nutty flavor that complements the walnuts in the crisps. Also because the crisps are not flat but are warped like potato chips, they are particularly suited to a soft cheese that can mold itself to their curves.

Once opened, you might want to nibble on the crackers alone – our kids particularly like them but that seems like a waste! (Sorry, kids, here have a table water cracker.) In that case, the box clearly cautions that “one slice leads to the loaf.” You can’t say they didn’t warn you.