Tips for Making Party Cheese Platters

Make your party or celebration more festive with cheese platters. A cheese platter is nothing but a ubiquitous party platter that is loaded with a wide variety of cheese, crackers, nuts, olives, and more. It is going to be a sure fire hit of your party. Creating a cheese platter is like creating a masterpiece. It is an easy-to-make appetizer and can be done in minutes.
To make a cheese platter, first you must know the different types of cheese available in the market. Basically, cheese can be categorized into three types - cheese made from cow, goat, and sheep milk. Every platter should contain at least one of each type. Generally, cow’s milk cheese has a hard texture, while sheep’s milk cheese has a semi soft texture. Cheese from goat’s milk has got a creamy and soft texture. Aim at keeping from three to six varieties of cheese on your platter. Each variety should vary in color, texture, and milk type, thereby ensuring a cornucopia of flavor and texture.
Usually, the taste of the cheese ranges from mild, medium, to strong. Choose from the endless list of gouda, cheddar, parmesan, camembert, brie, herbal goat cheese, and much more. You have to choose the right variety of cheese so that they complement each other. Before purchasing, taste each variety of cheese, from the mild ones to the most pungent ones and feel its texture. This will surely help you in making a balanced cheese platter.
The next step involves arranging and decorating your platter. You can use a large cutting board made of wood, stone, or marble, or even a dinner plate as the base for your cheese platter. Allow the cheese to come to its room temperature before serving in the platter. Arrange the different varieties of cheese in such a way that the people start tasting the mild cheese first, subsequently tasting the stronger ones. Cheeses can be sliced, cubed, or left whole, directly on the cutting board. Always be creative. Never forget to accompany your platter with cheese knives so that your guests can serve themselves. Always remember to keep separate knife for each variety of cheese; a sharp knife for hard cheese, a butter knife for semi hard cheese, and spoons or scoops for soft cheese.
Now, you can use myriad condiments to garnish your cheese platter. For a cheese plate, bread and crackers are the most obvious one for garnishing. You can also garnish nuts such as hazel nuts, cashews, macadamia, and raisins and fresh seasonal fruits such as grapes, apricots, cherries, fresh figs, black or green olives, dates, and even slices of meat. Instead of fresh fruits, you can also consider dried fruits or fruit spreads. If you are making cheese platter based on a theme, then try to garnish the platter according to the it. For instance, serve Spanish cheese platter with Spanish garnishes.
Serving cheese without wine is incomplete. Cheese will go fine with two types of wine, champagne and full-bodied red wine. Make your guests feel more excited by serving your delicious cheese platter along with wine.