Need to make a charcuterie board for Christmas. For those that have more experience, what are the must-haves? My only must-have is a ghost pepper salami that I can get from a local butcher. Otherwise I don't know shit about cheeses and such.
I like having a variety of textures. Having a goat cheese, brie (or another soft cheese but I like brie), and then a hard salty cheese is nice. Even just an aged cheddar is fine but you can't go wrong with parmesan either. In life, I mean - there's basically no life situation which isn't improved with the addition of aged parmesan. I'm not into funky cheeses though a lot of people like them. If you want to appear super fancy but without a ton of effort, serve a baked brie with jam with the board. The baked brie is a bit of a mess when it cools down, though, so that really only works if everyone is going to eat at the same time; if the board will be left out for a couple hours it's not as good. Texture applies to the crackers too - something like a thick wheat cracker, and then a thin crispy one. Fresh fruit (e.g. grapes), dried fruit (I especially like apricots), and pickles and/or pickled vegetables add some sweet and sour. Fill it in with some cured meats. How big are you going?
Prosciutto or capocollo. I kind of like semi exotic wild game terrines as something different. I like sharp cheeses, creamy less vinegary blues, Gruyère, and usually a salty sweet goat cheese with fruity sauce cherry or cranberry. I honestly don’t fuck around with crackers or bread spreads. Hate olives but gherkin pickles and pickled red onions can be fun.
Throw some medjool dates on that bitch. You wanna up the game on that? Order some from Bateel. Expensive but worth it.
8 adults, couple kids. They're not adventurous eaters at all. apricots is good idea. Marcona almonds are usually a board staple with our group as well. Trying to spruce it up though because my parents have the palette of a golden retriever. They could eat the same shit every single day and not care.
I think you should find a friendly cheese counter employee at a higher end grocery store and just have them feed you a bunch of samples until you come up with a nice variety of textures and flavors. I feel like that’s how I learned how to put together a cheese board. But if you want some specific recommendations, Delice de Bourgogne is a widely available triple cream Brie that’s mild but suuuuper creamy and delicious. Parrano is a Gouda with strong parm vibes but a smoother texture that’s good for crackers/bread. Manchego is a solid option if you want a sheep cheese without much sheepy funk. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, they have a lot of options that hit the reasonably priced/tasty/accessible to lots of palates trifecta, not to mention some solid options for nuts and olives and crackers. I also like to have a fig jam or similar with my charcuterie spreads. And thinly sliced apple and pear. And if you have the time, making some quick pickled veggies is fun, I like dilly asparagus and spicy green beans.
TJs is exactly where we ended up going for most of it. We also did a small blind wine tasting with it. Had a local wine shop pick 4 bottles at random and brown bag them. We only told them the 4 different price points and had them write the wines down on an answer key and had all participants guess. I'm only posting here because both my parents passed out at 6:30 lol.
What’s the verdict on the wine? I bought a really exciting looking croatian red to bring to an event but I can’t drink it because red wine gives me hives now. Stupid shitty body.
We had a $6 bottle, $20 bottle, $50 bottle and $80 bottle. The $20 bottle was the overwhelming favorite.
Do you have a good doctor? Sometimes you can take an otc antihistamine to prevent the hives. Also, some allergies are cyclical so re-check after 7 years-ish. So, you can ask your doctor.
It's not an allergy so much as a histamine reaction, at least that's the working theory. But I already take daily antihistamines. I can double down and kind of get away with it but then I feel like I need to go to bed IMMEDIATELY. I've been getting hives randomly ever since I had a baby, but red wine is the only thing that is consistently a problem.
A blind taste test is how I learned I don't have a great palette. Threw a wine party where everyone brought a wrapped bottle and then we ranked them on a little score sheet. There was expensive bottle that everyone raved about, I ranked it dead last and said it tasted like gas station wine.