How to Make a Cheese Board at Home
Cheese boards are a fun personal adventure and are a great addition to your food arsenal in any occasion. Cheese boards can be the perfect appetizer for a friends and family gathering or can be a great snack-source for you to dig into. Also, playing around with all the different combinations and possibilities is arguably the biggest attraction to a cheese board. It really is an open playing field and there are very little food platters that allow such bespoke customizations. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at how you can make a cheese board for yourself at home.
Choosing a Board
The first step in making a cheese board is selecting an appropriate dish to plate it on. And the type of dish you need is in the name. Cheese boards are best plated on a flat board. And the board itself can change depending on the aesthetic and feel you want. Wooden boards with delightful imperfections are perfect for a more rustic theme with darker colored food items. Alternatively, a clean, white marble board provides a nice backdrop for colorful fruits to shine.
Also, if you don’t have a board at hand, you don’t need to worry. Pretty much any flat dish like a large baking pan or a gigantic sized plate with lot of flat area will work perfectly. Just make sure not to use a bowl. The low amount of horizontal area makes it tough to work with a bowl.
Cheese Time
Having selected your dish, its time for the big event: The Cheese.
When it comes to cheese, it is all personal preference really. Not everyone likes all kinds of cheese. Different people like different cheeses. Some like their cheese with a stronger taste and feel while others swear to never eat such variants. For flavor and taste, include the cheese you like to eat. Also, if you are planning out a cheese board for a special occasion, it might be a good idea to have some gluten free ones as well. Now, admittedly gluten free cheese is quite infamous for not being as delicious as regular cheese but, having a gluten free variant in a situation where you know a lot of different people will be attacking the platter never hurts.
Following on from the taste discussion, its now type to talk about type. In general, on your cheese board you would want a healthy mixture of soft, aged and firm cheeses. This gives you an interesting variety of textures which you would want in your platter.
When it comes to assembly, you would generally want to go by feel. Cut your cheeses in various shapes i.e., slices, triangles. And then just place them where it feels right. You don’t have to focus too hard on maintaining a style or purposefully make it either simple or complex. As you will see later, the sheer number of elements will make it complex, but then the familiarity of each will make it simple as well.
Charcuterie
Next up is the meat. Charcuterie is basically just cured meats. This includes the likes of salami, chorizo and many more. Once again add the meats you like and want to eat. Also, there are restrictions which many people follow and if you have a particular restraint, you will obviously have to make an omission.
For placing the meat, you have a lot of room and freedom to just try out new methods. Try cutting the chorizos at an angle which would make them look more interesting. And look to place meats like the salami in a circle around a small little bowl of cheese of condiments. Slowly build up the board neatly intertwining between the meats and the cheeses.
Bring Some Color
Lastly, add an assortment of sweet and savory fruits to the cheese board. With fruits in particular, you would want to select a theme beforehand. Different types of fruits have different overall flavor and feel. You go for a fresher theme with some lovely tropical fruits. Or you could get a more sweeter and bolder taste from stone fruits if you so want.
After selecting the fruits, you want, cut them up accordingly and then use the boards to fill the little spaces between the cheeses and meats. This way you get pleasing bursts of colors that make the cheese boards look for festive.
End
Cheese boards are unparalleled as they provide a great eating experience and are a certified jaw dropper. And, they are surprisingly easy to make! Cheese boards are simple because they don’t really require you to do much other than carefully compile food that you like. But then again, because of the sheer number of different elements you can implement, you can get a complex look easily.
So, with a rare combination of being brilliant to eat, having a complex look to them and also being easy to make, cheese boards are really inviting and you should absolutely try making one.