So I’ve (21F) always loved eating cheese but have in the past 6 months started making cheeseboards for lunch. It actually works out pretty cheap considering I’ll spend £35ish on all the ingredients and will make 5 personal boards to take to work. Everyone always compliments them and I made a huge one for a staff event a few weeks ago which everyone loved (wish I had pics) but I am wondering how to up my game a bit more? I’m not a huge fan of standard charcuterie meats like prosciutto and have the appetite of a child so I use pepperoni and like mini chicken kiev bites and such but I always feel like something is missing ? Apart from olives and your traditional meats is there anything else I can add to make them better? TIA X
by pleeceebee
33 Comments
More cheese
I definitely feel like I’m missing color in general. Maybe cucumber slices for some green? Orange/tangerine slices. Fig.
I’ve recently done a bunch of research on this because I pulled small straw and had to do s cheese board at Christmas. As an accomplished amateur chef, I found this to be an insult, so I decided to go all out (context only)
Look, it has all the right parts, but no flare.
1) find some unique elements, I found gold berries, which are ridiculously good, but dropped here and there really popped
2) you have too much. Rich people don’t have furniture against walls for a reason… Space is luxury, walk into any high end store. Buy a big board and spread that shit out yo
3) have trails of thought/food… All meat elements go ne/se, where all fruits are bundled like their growing pattern
4) lose the crackers on the patter, they are boring and they can be on a clothed basket on the side and no one gives a mad ass fuck
5) jellies, jellies, jellies. Add them
6) you need pickled things, it adds a ton
7) chocolate and differentiated kinds. It brings the sweet tooth in
8) nuts and candied nuts, bundle that in
My board attached in comment if I can
Some jam is always nice. Especially fig jam
Buy more expensive food and separate them accordingly! No Ritz crackers!
Elevate some cheese of with a upside-down bowl. A little peach of wood an s some little bowls with jams/mustard
All of this would be so expensive here in my country 😭I’m really jealous
cover the board in butter first
/s
Condiments. You should try include some chutneys, jams, quince paste , piccalilli etc
Also fruits . Pears , apples and plums combo great with many cheeses (do strawberries pair well..) and add a lot of colour to your cheese board . Your board is looking a little 70s beige at the mo.
And Butter
Less gluten more GF options. More veg, more fruit, more color
More cheese
a dip, I’d probably go with creamed spinach
Some nice chutneys! The ones from Tracklement are good, especially the chili jam (sweet but with a hit). The ones from Stoke are normally really good too, but even pop by your local garden centre as they tend to have locally produced stuff and you can find some absolute gems! Saw in another comment you said you live in the south of England, if in Sussex then there’s a bunch of good places around. Brighton used to have a lovely charcuterie shop down the marina, but not sure if it went after all the lockdowns…
I agree with comments about adding jelly and pickled things, but the biggest thing that jumps out to me (and no offense intended here) is the quality of the items. Ritz crackers, meat from a pre sliced package, cheese similarly, etc. if you want to step it up I’d try to find some of that real bougie (s?) stuff, eg nice soppressetta, pepperoni and so on.
Onion jam
Ditch the plastic and be a bit cleaner and more intentional with your design. It seems very haphazard. Some organization would help.
I’d suggest multiple boards. Maybe one for the harder cheeses, one for the softer ones. Maybe a separate one for the meats. Instead of being one big cheese tray everything is pushed onto, make it more a buffet with some space to breathe or add more things like the fruits.
Also seeing them separate like that may give you an idea of what you might want more of. If you have more hard cheeses, you might want some softer ones, or if you have mainly regular cheeses, you might decide to spring for some funkier flavored ones.
Personally, I’m always a fan of Boursin, Drunken Goat, and Sottocenere truffle. Those three are absolute must haves any time I do a holiday cheese plate.
Just use your imagination – meat, cheese, and jam on ANY plate is delicious. Oh.don’t forget the olives…=)
To look fancy, YouTube apple swans. Pretty easy and they look very presentable
CHEESE
Depending on where you are from… Most places don’t really put crackers/fruit on a cheese board. The cheese board has _cheese_ on it, and you serve whatever you serve (fresh baguette, but not strawberries) on the side. Putting crackers and fruits on it is probably an US-American habit, is it not?
Jam, fruit such as berries or apples, peaches, dried apricots or any other fried fruit’s cranberries would work well. Balsamic vinegar or honey to dip. Nuts of any kind
Traditionally a cheese board is served at the end of the meal either before (in France) or after (UK) dessert or instead of dessert. Charcuterie doesn’t usually feature as this is served at the start of the meal. Generally when I do a cheese course I pick 3-5 cheeses and go for a variety of styles of cheese, hard, blue, mould ripened, washed rind, goats etc. The cheese should be the star with accompaniments intended to compliment the flavour of the cheese, I usually go for celery, muscat grapes and apple with a few different jellies and chutneys. Fruit bread is traditional but I’m not a fan and go more for crackers – again choose a variety to complement the cheese, charcoal crackers, water biscuits, something herby or spiced. Optional extras could include figs, dried fruits, nuts, honey, fruit pastes like membrillo. Also important is having something to wash it down with so a nice fortified wine. In terms of presentation I feel it’s better to have fewer, larger blocks of cheese instead of slices, go for a whole bunch of grapes, crackers and breads served separately so as not to crowd the board/plate.
Go crazy at aldi, it’s so cheap and most even have a charcuterie isle right now.
Put them on a stand
So many options.
* nuts
* jam
* dried fruit
* pickles
* mustard
* smoked fish
* more types of bread
* infused olive oil
* fancy vinegar
Pepper jams etc, and pickled things
I would recommend taking a look at an excellent YouTube video about cheese board arrangements
Just search Sean lock cheeseboard
Edible flowers on a cheese board can add some nice color to the presentation
Some acids like pepperoncini or antipasti garden mix to bring some acid. Capers are good too. I know you said no more meat but smoked trout is yum.
Fancy plate
More cheese, less everything else
Considerably more cheese would help.