If you are standing in a nice cheese shop, putting together a delicious cheese plate for a party is a very easy two-step process: Ask the salesperson for recommendations and buy the cheese. You might need to throw down some cash, but you don't really have to know anything.

But for those who don't want to make a special trip to a cheese store to shell out for the super fancy stuff, it can be a little more complicated. You're standing in a plain old grocery store around the corner, staring at a (sad) refrigerated cheese section where everything is shrink-wrapped and looks vaguely similar; how are you supposed to know what's actually worth buying?

Here's the answer, in a nutshell: