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 huckle
berries) and hard cheese." In modern practice we serve some suitable cheese like Camembert directly on slices of apple and pears, Gorgonzola on sliced banana, Hablé 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
½ pound mellow Roquefort
¼ pound sweet butter, softened
A dash cayenne
¾ cup champagne