Cheese board help

[Tiredsahm84]

What's your cheese board essentials?

It's for Christmas Day evening to be served as part of a dessert buffet for about 6 adults

After cheeses, cracker & chutney recommendations

Dh family, I'm happy just with a bit of cheddar so I'm useless!!

You don't NEED quince jelly if you don't like it!

We use homemade chilli jam.

@NoWordForFluffy could you share your home made chilli jam re Joe please? I've never had great success x

Here goes @feelinghelplesstoday:

www.alifeofgeekery.co.uk/2013/09/sweet-sticky-chilli-jam.html

@Thehollyandtheirony love quince paste. Even made it myself one year

Thank you @NoWordForFluffy I shall give it a go 👍 x

You are best sticking to 3 or 4 cheeses and getting a decent piece of each. I would probably get a nice Cheddar, Shropshire blue, brie and then something like Old Amsterdam or Morbier.

I want some cheese now.

Barber's Cruncher Red Leicester from Sainsbury's has a better flavour than some we've tried.

We usually add - in addition to Cheddar, Blue Stilton and Brie - a sweet cheese such as Emmental or Jarlsberg.

So many fruit-in-cheese people.

Fruit in cheese is wrong.

I meant to add that pickled walnuts are delicious but last year Father Christmas brought pickled figs from Valvona & Crolla. They were amazing.

These are delicious, especially the garlic and herb one. My dad was "why have you brought cheese... oh my god, give me some more of that"

http://www.lancashirebombs.co.uk/cheese.html

Also blacksticks blue is really lovely

Black bomber is an outstanding cheddar.

Best thing to do is go to a cheese shop and have a taste session. My favourite bit of Christmas!

I love Blacksticks Blue.

And I agree that fruit in cheese is very wrong. Certainly not my thing!

I'm Cornish so most of ours is Cornish.

There has to be at least a hard cheese, a soft cheese and a blue. We would go for a good Davidstow cheddar (the black bomber is good too if non-Cornish), a St Endellion brie (left out it is beautiful creamy gooeyness) and Cornish Blue.

We don't stick a fruit-in-cheese as don't like then but would then pop in two others. Often a different hard like a red Leicester type and then a really special one. Eppoisses or something equally lovely.

We would go with a gruyere and comte too, especially for a nice toastie.

Can't help with chutneys as other than
Branston pickle with cheddar sometimes I just like the cheeses as they are.

As PP have said, don't buy a selection box, and fruit in cheese is a definite no.

I'm a bit similar to you in that I'm not a huge cheese eater other than Cheddar (black bomber is a great one) and perhaps a brie. However DF, DM and DS are somewhat the cheesy connoisseurs

We do quite a fancy cheeseboard each year. From memory, Cornish yarg, brie, b.bomber, stinking Bishop (award winning blue cheese, but it truly honks and I judge the rest of them for eating it), a very mature red Leicester, thinly sliced aged parmesan or pecorino.

Add red and white grapes, plum chutney, gentleman's relish.

I love the ideas of figs from this thread too. I'll be pinching that.

If I have DS with me, he picks all the cheese, as he knows what he's looking for. If it's just me on the Christmas grocery shop, then I go to Waitrose, to the cheese counter, and ask for the top 6 cheeses people have been buying for their cheeseboards. That's always been really well received. It's not a cheap way to do it, we can be anywhere between £35 and £60 depending on which cheeses we go for, plus all the trimmings, but it lasts for a while in the fridge over the following week. Depending on how "all out" you go on Christmas dinner, a well put together cheeseboard can be a beautiful centrepiece, with quite a wow factor as you carry it through.

Lagoulet do a gorgeous little set of cheese knives.

Another thing I agree with PP is buy bigger bits. Nothing looks sadder than a sparse cheeseboard with little slivers of this and that. You'll use up the leftovers easily.

I want some cheese now*
*
I should get this on a t shirt