How To Build The Perfect Cheese Platter

Creating a big, beautiful cheese board is one of the easiest ways to feed your guests for a light lunch or appetizer this festive season! Here's our step-by-step guide to creating the most impressive platter.

What you’ll need:
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• A good-sized board or a couple of smaller boards
• Cheese knives
• Small bowls and/or plates
• Cheese (at least 2 - 3 types)
• Crackers and bread
• Accompaniments

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1. Grab everything you need

Start by selecting an oversized board that's large enough for all the different elements, or you could spread it across 2-3 smaller boards.

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2. Pick 2 - 3 cheeses

Pick cheeses that vary in taste and texture!

For example:

1. Strong - blue cheese
2. Creamy - creamy camembert or a triple creme brie are always crowd-pleasers
3. Hard or semi-hard - cheddar, gouda, havarti or gruyere

Tip:

• Serve cheeses at room temperature - allowing the flavour, aroma and texture to bloom.
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• If you intend on passing the cheese platter around, rather than have it sitting on a table, it’s a nice idea to pre-cut a few slices for ease for your guests. *Pre-cut the cheese when fresh out of the fridge and cold.
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3. Choose your crackers and or bread

It’s always good to provide a few options, think light wafer crackers, oat crackers or a seedy cracker like our homemade seed crackers, perfect for adding texture and crunch (as well as providing a delicious gluten-free option) and some fresh bread.

We like to avoid flavoured crackers as they can overpower the delicate flavours of the cheese.

4. Get creative with some tasty accompaniments

They add a variety of colours, tastes, textures and dimensions to the board. Think dips, cured meats, pickled or marinated vegetables, something fresh and something sweet.
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Dips

Add 1 - 2 dips into bowls which are varying sizes. The bowls will add dimension and height to the board. Pick dips which are vibrantly coloured - like our sun dried tomato and feta dip or basil pesto.
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Cured meats

Adds protein and robust flavours - think prosciutto, salami or smoked salmon.  
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Pickled or marinated vegetables

Olives, pickled vegetables or our marinated vegetables help to balance out the richness of the cheese with their acidity.
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Sweetness

A hint of sweetness on the board to provide that classic sweet and savoury combo - think dried fruit, a drizzle of honey or some quince paste.
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Freshness

Cheese boards can be rich and heavy so it's always good to provide something fresh as a palate cleanser, this could be as simple as some carrot sticks or a bunch of grapes.
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5. Time to assemble!

We find it best to start by platting the largest elements first followed by the smallest - nestling in the smaller elements to fill in any gaps.

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