If you have guests coming over for a dinner party and need an easy appetizer – go for a meat and cheese platter. You cannot go wrong with this tray – it’s all about the pairing and plating. Read on to find out more about how you can create the perfect meat and cheese tray!
1. Choose Your Meat
The most common choices of meat for a platter are salami, pastrami, prosciutto, and chorizo. Don’t go for sausages and chicken legs – they are just not meant for platters. Platter meat needs to be cured/smoked and thin, it should be easily consumable. If you want to place more variety, opt for this predefined Meat Platter.
2. Choose Your Cheese
Go super classy on your cheese selections! Your cheese needs to be a good mix of soft, medium hard and hard cheese. The most preferred choices of cheese for a platter presentation are Gouda, Smoked Cheddar, Stilton, Brie, Monterey Jack and also the Traditional Blue Cheese. Go for minimum 3 types of cheese on your platter.
The reason why you need these is that some cured meat may even be on the sweeter side, and the flavour of these cheeses will complement it well. For example, turkey goes well with Havarti, ham with Cheddar, salami with Provolone and chicken with Pepper Jack.Let your cheesy side take over.
Remember that your platter should represent variety so that your guests can choose what they like according to their tastes.
3. Choose Your Sides
A cheese and meat platter cannot stand alone, especially when you have vegetarians in the house. You need to have a mix of fruits, veggies, bread, and dips. Go for classic sides like L’exclusif Olive Focaccia Bread,Healthy Alternatives Floral Blend Honey, traditional olives, sliced apples and pears, nuts, roasted peppers, pickled veggies, crackers, breadsticks and so on. You can use stuff you commonly keep in the refrigerator as well.
4. Complete Your Platter
Any platter that involves cheese is incomplete until it has wine! Even though white wine goes with a wider array of flavours, it is not a common favourite. Provide both red and white wine with the platter and let your guests take their pick.
5. Plate It
What really makes a platter such a preferable party dish is the way it is presented. The big shared platter is a great conversation facilitator.Plate it properly and in good quantity so you don’t have to keep replenishing it.
Follow these simple tips for a perfect aesthetic platter:
Place your crackers and bread in the middle.
Separate your meats and place them on the opposite sides. In the remaining space, insert the cheese blocks and cubes.
Fill in next to your meats your cheeses and have a few slices already cut. Place a cheese knife next to each selection of cheese offered.
Strategically place olives and nuts wherever there’s space, but not next to each other.
This platter is an easy masterpiece where every element complements another. You can find all your platter ingredients here.
Experiment further with the Fruit and Cheese Platter.