Tricks To Properly Serving Cheese

Whether you are hosting an event or party or simply want to spice up your dinner, serving cheese can make a great deal of sense. You can serve as much or as little cheese as you want and it does just as well as an appetizer as a snack or dessert. Follow these tricks and you will be a pro at serving cheese.

What To Serve

When you serve cheese, you don’t want to serve it all by itself. You will need a variety of cheeses in addition to small slices of bread or crackers and some small accompanying snacks as well. You should generally select a soft cheese, a firm one (like Swiss, Cheddar, or Gruyere), and a blue cheese. Your goal is to have a range of textures and flavors on display. Snack ideas include nuts, fruits, vegetables, cured meats, and jams.

Quantities To Serve

The biggest question some people have about serving cheese is how much to provide. If the cheese is going to be the main appetizer at your party, then aim to get three pounds of cheese for every eight people that will be present. If, however, you will have multiple appetizers, having just three or four ounces per person on hand should be enough.

Knives For Serving

To truly serve cheese like a professional, you need to know which types of knives to use as well. Easily cut off a cheese wedge from the wheel with a sharp cook’s knife after dipping the knife in hot water and wiping it. Put either a cheese knife or any small, sharp knife on the tray for cutting harder cheese and a pate or butter knife for soft ones. Remember that you need to give each cheese its own knife so flavors don’t mix.

Spreading Out The Cheese

If you buy a cheese platter from your local supermarket, chances are the cheese is all thinly sliced and stacked on top of each other or layered. While this works for budget cheese, to create a nice presentation, you need to follow some different advice. Don’t layer the different cheeses on top of each other as this will cause their flavors to mix. If you have a larger quantity of cheese, considering spreading it out among several different trays. This prevents the feeling of crowding, both on the tray and from guests trying to get to their favorite slices.