College White With Truffles is a Brie-style cow's-milk cheese produced by the Oxford Cheese Company, with a truffle cream layered through its centre. It suits a small cheese plate where you want a soft, spreadable cheese with an earthy accent.
In This Article
What Makes College White Different From Plain Brie?
The filling is the useful distinction. The Oxford Cheese Company's own product page describes College White being sliced in half and filled with a truffle cream of their own recipe, prepared in small batches of typically a dozen cheeses at a time.
The Oxford Cheese Company confirms pasteurised cow's milk and vegetarian rennet. Check the current package for the full ingredient list if you need to confirm the truffle species, its proportion in the filling, or any other component.
The cheese weighs approximately 550g minimum as sold directly by the Oxford Cheese Company. That size works for a group rather than an individual tasting, and cutting wedges through both rind and filling gives each person both components in proportion.
A plain Brie with a white rind and soft center gives you a similar way to serve the cheese, but without that filling. Another truffled Brie-style cheese is a closer replacement than a hard truffle cheese when you need something to spread on bread.
How Ripe Should You Buy College White?
Choose for the day you plan to eat it. At a cheese counter, ask whether the piece is ready to serve now or still has a firmer center, and request a taste when the shop offers one.
A softer paste makes spreading easier, while a firmer piece is easier to cut into neat wedges.
Neither texture gives you a reliable food-safety test, and you do not need to wait for the whole wheel to become runny.
For a wrapped wheel, the date and storage instructions are more useful than guessing its age from the rind. Ask the seller how long a freshly cut portion should be kept, since its handling history differs from that of an unopened package.
The Oxford Cheese Company advises allowing the cheese to ripen until the paste is creamy and unctuous. As it matures, the flavour of truffle permeates through the whole cheese rather than staying concentrated in the filling layer alone.
How Should You Serve College White With Truffles?
Cut wedges through both the rind and center so each portion includes the filling. Plain bread or unsalted crackers let you taste the cheese before deciding whether it needs anything alongside.
For a small plate, add sliced pear and a few walnuts. Keep strongly flavoured chutney separate so each person can choose how much sweetness and spice to add.
If you want to warm the cheese, put a portion on toast and watch it as it softens. There is no need to rule out cooking altogether, but using a small amount first avoids committing a whole wheel to a dish you have not tried.
How Do You Store College White, and Is It Safe in Pregnancy?
Keep it refrigerated and follow the package's use-by date and any after-opening instructions. Cover a cut face with cheese paper or parchment inside a covered container, and put out only the portion you expect to eat.
Our advice on refrigeration and time on a cheese board explains why serving time counts toward the total time out of the fridge. A ripe texture or pleasant smell cannot establish that a soft cheese is safe.
For pregnancy in the UK, the NHS advises cooking mould-ripened soft cheeses with a white rind until steaming hot throughout, even when made with pasteurized milk. Simply softening this cheese on toast does not necessarily meet that condition.
Follow that agency guidance rather than a retailer's general pregnancy suitability badge. A sealed pack and refrigeration do not replace the cooking advice.
