Cheese Boards

Rock the Cheeseboard

There's only one thing Wisconsinites crave more than cheese: the cheeseboard. A cheeseboard is like when you have something you love so much – like a TV show or a chocolate bar – and then suddenly you get to binge on half a dozen of them at the same time. Some people might call that too much of a good thing, but in Wisconsin, we call that heaven.

It's heavenly because, really, how can a person choose just one cheese? How can you say "yes" to gouda if it means saying "no" to fontina, brick, and Dunbarton Blue? With a cheeseboard, you can have your butterkäse and eat your colby, limburger, parmesan, and ricotta too.

If you're ready to rock the cheeseboard, we've got some great recipes you can browse through our website. Or keep scrolling down for tips on building a cheeseboard that would make it every Wisconsin cheesemaker proud.

Building the ultimate Cheeseboard

It's not hard to build a cheeseboard like a pro if you follow these six tips for a killer charcuterie recipe.

• Buy enough. When selecting meats and cheeses, two ounces of each per-person is about right if your cheeseboard is an appetizer. If it's the entire meal, then five ounces of meat and cheese per person is more like it.
• Create variety. A great cheeseboard has a variety of textures, tastes, and colors. That means showcasing different types of cheese, including hard, semi-firm, soft, and spreadable cheese. For the meats, you'll want thinly sliced whole-muscle cuts, chunks of cured sausage, and small jars of pate or mousses.
• Give it height. Your cheeseboard wants to have a sense of a culinary landscape to it and placing something tall at the center is the best way to accomplish this. You can use a pile of cheeses, a mound of grapes or a taller jar of fruit preserves.
• Add sweetness. Adding honey, preserves, freshly sliced fruits, dried fruits or chocolate to the board will help to balance the savory, fat, and salty flavors of the meat and cheese.
• Build it artfully. Lay your cheeses, breads, and crackers out around the board first. Then add your small containers of jams, spreads, and mustards. Nestle the chunks and slices of meat in between them, and fill in the gaps with nuts, dried fruits, roasted vegetables, olives, and other goodies.

Wisconsin: chairman of the Cheeseboard

Cheese rules Wisconsin. We can't get enough of the stuff. From the freshest cheese curds to the oldest aged cheddar to the wildest specialty cheese, there's not a single cheese we'd ever kick off our plate. It's why we have friendly but legendary arguments over the best mac and cheese recipe, and why our state produces one-quarter of all the cheese in America and roughly half of all the artisan cheese.

And this obsession is why, simply put, Wisconsin cheesemakers make the tastiest, most award-winning, highest-quality cheese on the planet. This means letting Wisconsin cheese rule your Cheeseboard is just the right thing to do when you want to wow your taste buds and your guests.