What Cheese Pairs With Pickled Fennel?

Cheese and pickles are natural companions. A little acidity and crunch can cut through the richness of cheese, refreshing the palate and bringing different flavours to the fore. While cornichons and pickled onions might be familiar cheeseboard favourites, pickled fennel offers something a little different.

Our Pickled Fennel is made by Fruits of the Forage, a small British producer with a passion for preserving unusual flavours and making the most of seasonal ingredients. Their roots lie in foraging and capturing ingredients that might otherwise be overlooked, transforming them into preserves, pickles and condiments that celebrate the changing seasons.

Inspired by a traditional Sicilian recipe, crisp fennel is pickled in white wine vinegar with spices and finished with orange zest. The result is fresh, aromatic and gently acidic, with the distinctive aniseed character of fennel balanced by a bright citrus note.

It also happens to be rather good with cheese.

One of the pleasures of working behind a cheese counter is having plenty of delicious inspiration close at hand. When we first tasted the Pickled Fennel, our cheesemongering team at Jermyn Street gathered around the counter to find its perfect partners, tasting it alongside different cheeses from the day's selection. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. After plenty of tasting and discussion, three combinations stood out: Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire, Comté and Golden Cross. Each brings something quite different to the pairing, and luckily for us, a well-stocked cheese counter makes experimentation particularly tasty!

Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire

The light, crumbly texture and fresh lactic character of Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire make it a wonderful partner for pickled fennel. The pickle brings crunch and aromatic sweetness, while its acidity sits naturally alongside the bright, tangy character of the cheese.

Serve them simply with good bread and perhaps some charcuterie for a cheeseboard that feels generous without requiring much preparation.

Comté 

Rich, savoury and nutty cheeses love something sharp alongside them. We often reach for pickled accompaniments with Alpine styles for precisely this reason.

With Comté, the white wine vinegar cuts through the cheese's richness while fennel and orange bring a fresher contrast to its deeper, nutty flavours. It is an excellent combination for anyone who normally reaches automatically for a cornichon and fancies trying something new.

Golden Cross

Goats' cheese takes the pairing in another direction. Golden Cross has the fresh acidity we love in goats' milk cheese, alongside a softer, creamier texture as it matures.

The aromatic quality of fennel works beautifully with that freshness, while the orange zest brings out the brighter flavours in the cheese. Add a few leaves and some good bread and you have the beginnings of a very easy late summer lunch.

Beyond the Cheeseboard

A jar of pickled fennel needn't be reserved for cheese. Its combination of crunch, acidity and citrus makes it a useful thing to have open in the fridge. Try it tucked into sandwiches, scattered through salads or served alongside charcuterie. Pickled fennel is also traditionally at home with fish, where its freshness can provide a welcome contrast to richer flavours.

But naturally, we think a cheeseboard is an excellent place to start