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If you know me IRL, you know that cheese is one of my favorite food groups. With two kids and a puppy running around, I don’t have time to be busy in the kitchen when we have people over for the holidays. Enter the easiest app around: the cheese board. I have some easy tips and tricks for you on how to make a cheese platter:
how to make a cheese platter
The only rule I have when it comes to cheese is: the rules are meant to be broken. Cheese is nothing to be snobby about – mix it, match it, try it. While there are no rules, it’s good to have options, so I put together this super easy guide on how to make the perfect cheese board – mix and match to create a board that’s going to work for your party:
Nuts
I used almonds and pistachios but walnuts, pecans or cashews would be delicious as well. Nuts add crunch, texture and a little salty flavor. Yum.
Fruits
For fresh, I like apple slices, pear slices and bunches of grapes. If you want to go the dried route, try cranberries, cherries, apricots or figs. Fruit adds a sweet flavor and fun color to your cheese board.
The Vessel
This can be crackers (whole wheat, multigrain, butter), mini toasts, breadsticks, sliced french bread, toasted bagel slices, really just anything that can be used to get the cheese to your mouth will work. Try a mix of textures and flavors to compliment your cheeses.
Something Sweet
Honey, jams, cranberry sauce, chutneys, basically anything sweet to top your creation. Put these in pretty little mini bowls to mix things up on your board.
Something Salty
I love mini dill pickles and good olives for a salty flavor on the cheese board. Other options are artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper slices, or even caramelized onions.
The Cheese
This is the most important part! You want a mix of adventurous and “safe” (aka something everyone will like). For my board, I had a mix of fontina, brie, and aged cheddar.
There are a couple ways to select the cheese you want for your board:
- Go with a soft (brie, camembert, goat), a semi-soft (havarti, muenster, mozzarella, fontina), a hard (cheddar, gouda, ), and an aged (asiago, parmesan, roman0).
- Try a mix of goat’s milk, cows milk, sheep’s milk.
- Buy whatever sounds/looks good to you. It’s your party, after all ;).
Make It Pretty
Start with a good base – investing in a great cheese board makes it easy to make even the simplest cheese plate look good. I like to pack it all in and do a fun mix of colors and textures – no rules! To really put your cheese board into Martha category, add some decorative fresh herbs; rosemary is super easy and smells delicious. You could even use a sprig of pine needles from your tree in a pinch. Don’t forget little ramekin mixing bowls to hold the stuff that could mix with your dry stuff.
Pro Tips
- Take your cheese out of the fridge an hour in advance so it gets soft enough to cut.
- Have your accompaniments ready and sliced for easy refills on the cheese platter.
- The rule of thumb for cheese as an app is 3-4 ounces per guest at the party.
My favorite cheese boards and cheese accessories:
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Stella Cheeses has an amazing sweepstakes running through 12/31/16 – you can win a $5,000 trip to Napa (seriously one of my favorite places on earth!) – enter here!
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