Steps To Putting Together The Best Cheese Platter
A cheese platter is the perfect party food for any event! Cheese platters have many options for any dietary requirement! There is cheese, bread, crackers, cheese, fruit, vegetables, cheese, nuts, dips, and more CHEESE! Cheese boards are the staple of all events – they are great to stand around, snack at and create a centrepiece for food and socialising.
Making sure that you put together the perfect cheese platter is essential to making sure your party is a hit and that everyone is fed and happy. Here six steps you should take to put together the best cheese platter for any event!
1. Choose Your Work Space
Choosing the space, board, or table for your cheese platter is the perfect first step to ensuring you have the perfect cheese board. Choosing your where you are creating your cheese platter helps you to know how much space you have to work with. The best works spaces for cheese boards are wooden chopping boards, interesting platters, or whole tables wrapped in brown paper.
Knowing the amount of space you have to use, and the surface you will be working on will help you make other decisions. If you are using wooden boards you don’t need other dishes and can just arrange it on the board, if you are using a whole table wrapped in brown paper you will need plates and dishes to hold some of your food that can’t just be loose on the table.
2. Pick Your Cheeses
Picking the cheese for your cheese platter is the next, and most important, step. Cheese is the obvious staple of all cheese boards and it is important to get a variety of flavours and textures. You should have an even mix of soft cheeses and hard cheeses.
It is important when picking cheeses, you should pick ones that people are familiar with such as Camembert, Feta and Cheddar so you can keep in mind your guests’ preferences. You can then get experimental with the cheeses and get ones that are blue or aged or “stinky” for other guests who have a more refined palette.
3. Bread And Crackers
The next step to creating the perfect cheese platter is getting a variety of bread and crackers. Having bread and crackers is super important as it creates a base to eat the cheese with. You should get a lot of different types of bread and crackers as well. The best bread to eat with cheese is sourdough bread, rye bread, crusty baguettes and Turkish bread.
Make sure you have your bread sliced in small pieces beforehand so that guests are able to grab it and go. Additionally, having a few different types of crackers such as cracker pepper crackers, water crackers and Jatz crackers is important for all your guests’ cheesy needs.
4. Meats
Picking out the best meats for your cheese platter is another important step. Not all cheese boards have to have meats; however, it is important to cater to all of your guests’ tastes. Having a few different selections of meats, such as salami, prosciutto, Italian sausage, and pieces of twiggy sticks or cabanossi.
5. Accompaniments
The next step to putting together the best cheese platter is to consider the other accompaniments you want to include. These can be sweet, salty, bitter, savoury or dips. Some examples of accompaniments that you could add includes:
Sweet: preserves, figs, honeycomb, dried fruits, grapes and other fresh fruits
Salty and Savoury: pretzels, nuts, sun-dried tomatoes
Bitter: olives, pickles
Dips: hummus, red pepper dips, basil pesto
6. Arranging
The final step to putting together the best cheese platter is arranging it perfectly. The first step to arranging your cheese board is placing your cheeses. Cheese should be central and reachable, and you should take one slice out of each of them so that guests aren’t worried about taking the first slice.
The next step is to add the crackers and bread, these should be placed near the cheeses so that it is easy for guests to grab a slice of cheese and place it on a base. You should then add all of your meats and other accompaniments throughout the board or table so that they are spread out, colourful and appealing.
The last step is to label as much as you can, especially the ingredients that aren’t self-explanatory. This is a good way for guests to stick to their dietary requirements and avoid allergies or tolerances.
