Do you love a good cheeseboard? I know I do. They quickly became one of the most popular food offerings for gatherings over the last few years and if you’ve had one, I bet you can tell why! A good cheeseboard is made up of a variety of high quality cheeses, meats, and fruits that make for a delicious pairing and is often served as an appetizer, but can just as easily be served as it’s own meal. Today I am going to be sharing with you a list of cheeseboard making tips for beginners, including cheeseboard party tips, that will help you become a PRO at hand crafting delicious cheese boards with friends!
Why Did Cheeseboards Get So Popular
Charcuterie boards, and cheeseboards, have gotten increasingly popular over the last few years and with good reason. Many think that they got so popular because they are a fun way to have an upscale appetizer or meal but with a minimal skillset. While there are some tips and tricks that go into setting up a good cheeseboard, they are fairly easy to put together in and of themselves.
It’s also talked about that they are a great self care activity that is calming for the mind. Since you have to be mindful of the placement (if you want to be, anyway), it can offer a soothing activity that is pretty accessible.
What Goes Into a Quality Cheeseboard
Making a quality cheeseboard doesn’t take much more than good cheese, meat, and fruit! Base what you buy off of your individual budget. You don’t have to purchase the high end cheeses if they are outside of your budget. You can just as easily make a beautiful cheeseboard with cheeses and meats purchased from the deli aisle in the grocery store!
Cheeseboard Party Tips for Beginners
When it comes to building a good cheeseboard, here are some top cheeseboard making tips for beginners:
- Do small individual boards or pair group of people together to create one board
- Make it a contest, you can have a price for the best board or make everyone a winner by coming up with different winning categories like the most beautiful board, most creative board, most fall inspired board ect.
- Depending on the size of your group and your budget, you either buy all the materials or split up the food for the boards amongst anyone that is attending. Give them clear assignments so you have a variety of cheeses, meat condiments, nuts, jams and extra seasonal vegetables and fruits to help express the season or holiday. Trader Joe’s is one of my favorite places shop for these ingredients but I’ve had great luck with the deli section of my local grocery store too.
- Create a place setting, even though this is not a meal you can still set the table with a small salad plate and a napkin and even a placecard, to make each guest feel special. I made sure to have a wine glass for both the red and white wine.
- Have a separate area to create the boards. Bring the boards to the set table.
- The centerpiece should be something that could easily move, so go with smaller bud arrangements, if you go for a larger centerpiece put it at the end of the table when the cheeseboards are placed on the table. I went with a garland that was built in separate shallow square vases, even though it looks like one piece. I could easily move sections to other places to make room for the boards
- Once the boards are made, offer your guests a white wine and a red wine.
- Encourage them to take small bites of items on the board and taste the way the wine enhances the tastes of each item on the board
- When I was deciding on my wine, I polled my guests in advance to see what wines they preferred and picked ones that were maybe new to them but in the vicinity of what they would like. For this workshop I picked a Spanish Tempranillo and a red pinot noire.
- I love finding a got to wine guy to get advice on my wine choices, I love going to Total Wine for just the mass amount of choices and great prices.
I hope this collection of tips and advice for building your own cheeseboard and cheeseboard party tips has inspired you to create your own beautiful celebrations. Make sure to tag us @ivoryandnoire and #inspiredbyivoryandnoire we love to see what you create.
