The holidays are here, which means lots of food, family, and fun! And what better way to celebrate this time, than with a beautiful holiday cheese board. Made with seasonal fruits, spreads, and delicious meats and cheeses, a spread like this is sure to impress any guest. Plus, we have all sorts of tips and recommendations down below so that you can create the best holiday cheese board!
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The Best Holiday Cheese Board
Christmas is right around the corner, which means lots of holiday entertaining. And what’s a holiday party without the food? Today, we’re here to show you how to create the most beautiful holiday cheese board that’s sure to impress your guests. We’ll take you step-by-step on how to create a beautiful spread, including our recommendations on what to add on your board. In addition, we’ve included a few tips to keep in mind when building your own cheese board.
What to Include
Cheese (of course): Depending on how many people you’re serving, the amount of cheese on your board can vary. Typically, 3-5 cheeses with a mixture of hard, soft, and semi-soft textures is ideal. Some of our favorites include goat cheese (chèvre), roquefort or blue cheese, manchego, and cheddar.
Meats: Prosciutto is a staple on cheese boards, but we also like to include salami, soppressata, and chorizo. Be sure to add of bit of spicy meats in there too! We recommend at least 3 types of meat to get in a good variety of flavors. We went with 5, but you don’t have to get that crazy!
Crackers & Bread: Mild-flavored breads and crackers are best so they don’t overpower the cheese. Think wheat, multigrain, or even something with a bit of herbs in it.
Fruits: We like to include a mixture of fresh and dried fruits for added texture. For holiday cheese boards, we recommend golden raisins, kumquats, pomegranates, persimmons, and citrus fruits.
Spreads: No holiday cheese board would be complete without a cranberry or fig jam. Honey is another great staple that tastes amazing on cheese and crackers.
Nuts: These help to fill in the gaps as well as add a bit of crunch. Some of our favorites include marcona almonds, Valencia almonds, and pistachios.
Extras: Add in some olives and cornichons to help cut the richness of the meat and cheese. Acidic foods like these give your palate a bit of a break from all the other heavy foods on the board.
Garnish: This is completely optional, but a sprig of rosemary here and there adds a nice touch.
How to Build the Best Holiday Cheese Board
A cheese board may look intimidating to put together, but it’s actually a lot easier than you think. If you’ve never made one before, below is a step-by-step guide on how to build the best holiday cheese board. We recommend taking it one step at a time and focusing on one ingredient at a time. Also, be sure to keep in mind the other ingredients you need to add. You don’t want to fill up your board with too much of one thing, leaving no room for another! Overall, we say go with your gut and get creative with it!
Start by laying out the cheeses.
Next, add in the meats.
Now you want to start filling it in with crackers, spreads, fruit, and other foods.
Lastly, the nuts help to fill in the gaps, giving you a fuller looking cheese board.
FAQ
Our board is 11×28″ including the handle. Generally, we think bigger is better if you’re planning on serving more than two people. Besides the cheese, you want to be able to fit all your spreads, meats, crackers, etc. in a nice even spread.
White wine that’s slightly sweet is typically a good go-to option. Or you can even try out a simple cocktail like gin and tonic. If you’re a non-alcoholic drinker like us, we recommend Lyre’s Classico as a good alternative to white wine.
Typically, you want to plan for 2-3 oz. of cheese per person.
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A Few Tips
- Slice the cheese while it’s cold, but eat it at room temperature. Cheese is a lot easier to handle when it’s cold, so be sure to slice everything straight out of the fridge. Once everything is cut, let the cheese rest until it reaches room temperature. That way all the flavors come through.
- Speaking of slicing cheese, leave some of the cheese unsliced, so that your guests can cut their own pieces. Plus, it’s an excuse to use those fancy cheese knives!
- When building any cheese board, you’ll want to think about texture. For example, chewy raisins pair well with a nice hard cheese.
- Add some acidic ingredients like cornichons or olives to cut through the richness of the cheese.
- For cheese boards, appearance matters just as much as much as the flavors. To create a beautiful looking board, go for a variety of different colored fruits, cheeses, and textures.
- Use high quality ingredients. This is an absolute must for the meats and cheeses since they’re the main ingredients on the board. So keep an eye out for the good stuff!
- Mix things up a bit by getting cheeses made from different milks. Think chèvre (goat cheese), cheddar (cow’s cheese), and manchego (sheep’s cheese). Of course, you don’t have to get something you don’t like, but it’s always good to have a bit of variety.
Recipe
The Best Holiday Cheese Board
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 1x
- Category: Appetizers
- Method: Assemble
- Cuisine: American
Description
The holidays are here, which means lots of food, family, and fun! And what better way to celebrate than with a beautiful holiday cheese board. Made with seasonal fruits, spreads, and delicious meats and cheeses, a spread like this is sure to impress any guest.
Ingredients
- 3–5 cheeses ranging from hard and semi-soft to soft and crumbly
- a variety of meats like prosciutto, salami, soppressata, and chorizo
- a variety of mild-flavored crackers and bread
- an assortment of fruits with different textures like grapes, pears, pomegranates, golden raisins, and persimmons
- seasonal spreads such as honey, cranberry jam, and fig jam
- an assortment of nuts like marcona almonds, Valencia almonds, and pistachios
- a mixture of acidic vegetables like olives and cornichons
Instructions
- Arrange the cheese, spreading them out evenly on the board. Slice the cheese while it’s cold into whatever shape you want (cubed, sliced, etc.)
- Next, spread out the meats, making sure there’s some near every piece of cheese on the board.
- Then add crackers, fruit, spreads, and vegetables.
- Lastly, fill in the gaps with the nuts. Et voilà! Your perfect holiday cheese board is done!
Notes
Be sure to slice the cheese while it’s cold, so it doesn’t fall apart when you cut it. It’s also best eaten at room temperature.
Our favorite cheeses to include are chèvre (goat cheese), roquefort, brie, and manchego.
Keywords: the best holiday cheese board, holiday recipes, holiday food
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