Putting Together a Cheese Platter

Creating a stunning cheese platter for your next gathering

If you are having a gathering of friends or are hosting a dinner party, then having the perfect cheese platter to offer your guests is crucial. Components you will need to consider to make your cheese platter suitable for guests are; the right dishes, cheese knives, mix of cheeses, and garnishes.

Dishes and Knives

Make sure that you have enough plates for each guest – even if not everyone opts for cheese, it’s always nice to know that they could! Also, make sure there is a suitable knife for each cheese. Many cheese knives are odd shapes, with metal curves at the end of the blade, or where the blade is a lot thinner than regular chopping knives. Make sure your cutlery is sharp to make the cheese-cutting experience as problem free as possible.

Types of Cheese

Variety is good, but try not to overwhelm your guests. Five types of cheese is definitely enough. Make sure that the varieties of cheeses that you choose have a mixture of textures; this will invariably mean that they each have a different strength of flavour too.  A creamy, soft type cheese such as Brie, a firm cheddar cheese and hard cheese such as Gouda are three great ones. Arrange them in terms of strength and maybe add a blue cheese to the mix just so you can help your guests experience different strengths of flavour.

How Much to Buy?

If you are serving a cheese platter as a main course, aim for between two and three ounces of cheese per guest. If it is being served as a dessert, aim for between one and one and a half ounces of cheese per guest.

Extra Touches to your cheese platter

To accompany your variety of cheeses, you will inevitably need some suitable garnishes to compliment your food. Fruity bread or a selection of crackers are great for placing different cheeses on and can make the platter seem more appealing. If you want to add colour to your platter as well as flavour, then wine jellies, a few small bunches of grapes, or a few slices of apple, olives, honey, chutney and nuts can bring out the flavour of the cheese and make the platter more visually appealing too. Pick a nice port or wine to go with your cheeses and you’ll keep your guests very happy.

What to Do with Leftovers

Make a macaroni and cheese dish, make a cheese sauce to pour over a steak, make some cheesy rice, make cheese sandwiches, make cheese soup, or make cheese soufflé – whatever you like. If you have so much cheese leftover you will know to buy less next time, but in the mean time you can enjoy your leftovers in any form that you want!

Find recipes for a cheese platter and its accompaniments on Recipebridge.