Cheese balls are back. How to make this classic party dish cool again

Cheese balls might seem cliché, but they can be a hit at any gathering

The cheese ball is a cliché. I believe, however, that like the pig in a blanket and the baked potato, the cheese ball is so cliched it has actually become cool.

Socially acceptable or not, when this dish from my cookbook “Deep Run Roots” is put out at a party of any kind, people hover over it like it’s a crystal ball.

Once you get used to the idea of making a cheese ball, keep a few things in mind. Bring it out at least 30 minutes before you plan on serving it. This forethought will make it spreadable and allow the complexity of its flavor to come through. Also, consider doubling the recipe. A fully formed cheese ball freezes and travels nicely. And, last, keep your cracker choice simple. Sea salt or plain Jane is the way to go here, possibly everywhere.

Note: This recipe calls for dates. Please do not use pre-chopped dates from a bag. They are covered in sugar and taste like sweet cardboard. Use whole, dried dates and remove the pits.

Cheese ball

Makes 1 large cheese ball or 2 small ones

Ingredients

¼ cup high-quality blue cheese (I like Maytag)

1/3 cup (5 ½ tablespoons) unsalted butter

¼ cup fresh goat cheese

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons cream cheese

¼ cup chopped dates

2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions (both white and green parts work here)

½ teaspoon hot sauce

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup Salt-and-Butter-Roasted Pecans, (recipe below), roughly chopped (or plain, toasted pecans)

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

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SALT-AND-BUTTER-ROASTED PECANS

2 cups pecan halves or pieces

2 tablespoons melted butter

¾ teaspoon salt, divided

Directions

Soften the cheese: Take the blue cheese, butter, goat cheese, and cream cheese out of the refrigerator to soften 30 minutes before making your cheese-ball mixture.

While the cheese softens, roast the pecans: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Toss the pecans thoroughly with the melted butter and ½ teaspoon of the salt. Spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and slide that sheet onto the middle rack of your oven. Roast the pecans for 11 minutes if using pecan halves and 10 minutes if you’re using pieces. Bring the slightly darkened and toasty-smelling pecans out of the oven and hit them with the remaining salt. Let them cool. Any extra pecans will keep for 2 weeks in an airtight container at room temperature.

Finish the cheese ball: In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine all the ingredients except for the pecans and parsley. Paddle it up till homogenous. It will be loose and sticky and you’ll wonder how you’re ever going to form that mess into a ball. The answer is, you transfer the bowl to the refrigerator for 15 minutes or so. During that time the cheese mix will firm up enough for you to pat it into a sphere. Once it’s stiff enough to hold up, form the ball and roll that ball in the pecans, followed by parsley.

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Vivian Howard is the chef and owner of the Chef and the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, North Carolina. The first woman since Julia Child to win a Peabody Award for a cooking program, she co-created and stars in the PBS series “A Chef’s Life.”

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Excerpted from “Deep Run Roots” by Vivian Howard. Copyright (copyright) 2016 by Vivian Howard. Photograph by Rex Miller. Used with permission of Voracious, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. New York, NY. All rights reserved.