Christmas cheese board for 40

[Bigsislookingforadvice]

Looking for ideas and suggestions please. We are attending a big family gathering on my DP side. Every family is being asked to contribute, we've been asked to do cheese board & fruit for 30-40 for post hot buffet.

I'm a plain olde cheddar and occasional borsin girl so ideas would be great. Thank you x

oh @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , how disappointing! I always love your posts and have conversed with you here for years under various user names. The Archer threads are a particular joy.

But suggesting not one but two adulterated flavoured cheeses? Feet Of Clay indeed, my Pratchettesque friend.

Don’t both with vegan cheese, it’s pretty terrible, opt for tuna of hummus, can’t go wrong

Where are you? I'd like to recommend a specific local supplier if I can.

You need about 8 cheeses, plus a selection of biscuits, good butter, some quince jelly/membrillo and at least 2 chutneys (one spicey, one mild) and some grapes.

Cheeses should be

2 veined/blue cheeses - one stilton or stichelton, one other.
2 soft cheeses eg Brie-type
2 hard cheeses - perhaps a gouda, don't have to include cheddar
A truffled cheese
A goat or sheep cheese - can be either hard or soft.

Tuna hummus for the vegans is a great typo 😉

Hmm. I wonder what's in it. If I were a vegan, I think I would be avoiding everything that pretends to be meat, fish or dairy. Make the most of all the other lovely things that don't come from animals! Mushroom pate, for example. Not that the OP needs to worry about that.

Be realistic in how much people will eat at the end of a hot meal or you may have a lot left over (I have made this mistake).

If you think in terms of likely grams of cheese and piece or two of fruit and a couple of crackers per person at the end of a meal then calculate up, add a bit and you might avoid too much left over. This also allows you to spend the budget on better cheeses (this course needs less prop but costs can ramp up quickly).

I agree with a few larger pieces rather than lots of small packets. A hard cheese, a brie type plus a blue and maybe something a bit unusual - a herby fresh goats cheese or a smokey scamorza and something vegan clearly labelled for the vegans (Violife is the most popular amongst vegans I know). A box of mixed crackers and for fruit the usual grapes, celery, apples and pears all work well with cheese.

Chutneys - very much a matter of taste but I like the garlic pickle NT shops sell.

Are you taking Port as well or just the food?

Yes I agree - I’m not a fan of fake meat/dairy and its possibly worth asking the vegans if they like vegan cheese as many don’t. I would definitely prefer a good mushroom pate or tapanade or similar to fake cheese but I may be the outlier

Pah. I like flavoured cheese and I'm not ashamed to own it!

Had some of this at lunchtime. Very nice too.

Ooh cheese wars! Luther vs the Pope has nothing the cheese wars.

Thanks for the thoughts on vegan cheese and hummus/ pate instead 👍🏻

This was a quick note to steer my partner but I feel I need to be involved now to get the board you've all sold to me 😀

I'm not began but one of my friends is and loves the the vegan boursin on a cracker

ERRRMMM, this is AMAZING!

I'd second the waitrose cheese wheel and then baskets of crackers - there are some lovely charcoal ones that are black that are fun. Some nice butter and a couple of cakestands of fruit to go with cheese so grapes, kumquats, kiwi berries piled on them. SOme quince cheese (a solid jelly) is nice too.

If you do go to Waitrose they have money off the cheese counter on a Thursday I think.

Not that I’ve been spending the last hour thinking about cheese but something I’ve done before is get a range of cheese from one supplier so the theme is the maker.

I get some cheese from these makers every year, the Caerfilli in particular goes quickly:

https://www.cawscenarth.co.uk/

They have hard, soft, blue, ripe, delicate cheeses (and some flavoured…) and all their cheeses are made with vegetarian rennet.

It doesn’t show on the site but I have also ordered slightly different wheel sizes as well (eg quarter wheel where the site shows whole or halves). I found them very helpful on customer service.

They do crackers/chutneys etc but the cheese is the star.

Other small makers are often flexible as well in terms of what they will actually supply.

Her/his choice, of course. Wouldn't be mine. I see the dairy Boursin also has preservative in it. <re-evaluates purchasing choices>

Ingredients
Water, coconut oil (22%), potato starch, inulin, sunflower oil, garlic & herbs (1.7%), salt, potato protein, white pepper, preservative (potassium sorbate), thickener (xanthan gum), natural flavoring.

That's a lot of stuff to eat to feel like you're eating cheese.

You have the best food to bring OP. I love a cheese board. I always spend too much on Christmas cheese, its one of my favourite bits and remindsme of my dad. Really good cheese is £££££ though, especially in a quantity to serve 40. Is it a course (so everyone will have a plateful) or a buffet option (so not for all?).

Agree large chunks of cheese work best for lots of people. A hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese and a non cow cheese is a classic. With grapes, crackers, chutney. Maybe celery and fruit butter. Yum.

I'm in Somerset and any food market or farmers market will have shed loads of different cheeses. If you're anywhere that means you can get to Weston-super-Mare on the 29th of this month there's a festival then.

I'd keep it simple. Choose a few cheeses and have plenty of each, rather than lods.of different ones. Cheddar, a blue cheese, a creamy cheese and a goats cheese by preference for me.

I prefer to do baguettes, but crackers might be better re freshness. Same again buy packers of one or two kinds not loads of different ones.

For that number I would start with a whole wheel of Brie. It could be stored at room temperature for a day or two to ‘ripen’ which would save on fridge space. it makes for a real centre piece and looks generous. Then a blue cheese- Stilton at Christmas. A smoked cheese- perhaps a Dorset red. A decent cheddar for those who like it and perhaps something crumbly like a lanacashire or Wensleydale. I personally don’t like goats cheese and I’m not able to tolerate much soft cheese so would avoid that but I would add a Gruyère or aged Gouda too.

then lots of crackers, rye crisp breads. Apple slices , grapes nuts etc. many People like celery and pickles
so I would include some of these too.

Costco also do those cakes of cheese quite cheap online (from ford farm)

If there are vegetarians coming I’d get all vegetarian rennet cheeses or label them (or have a separate labelled board)

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1GrtbRJS4y/?mibextid=wwXIfr

FB group with lots of ideas for cheeseboards.
also try instagram for tips on how to display them. I get little glass bowls that I’ve had for years, put them on the board first, filled with chutneys/fruit. I then add the cheese, and crackers

good luck

I am loving this thread and now want all the cheese for Christmas.

if money isn’t hugely a problem - the Peter’s Yard crackers are amazing. Real good crunch.

I’ve been vegan a good few years and I love a vegan cheeseboard. You can buy vegan cheese selections in most of the main supermarkets near to Christmas. I’ve had from Aldi, Asda and Morrisons. Waitrose do a range of luxury vegan cheeses. And as previously mentioned the vegan Boursin is very nice.

Most chutneys are vegan and most crackers but some do contain milk. If you’ll be having butter for the crackers then make sure you have dairy free spread/butter alternative.

For that number of people I would think about pre portioning at least some of the cheese. People are much more inclined to take a pre cut wedge than hack about themselves at large buffets. Lots of ideas on Pinterest for 'sharing boards' - some are very OTT but you can get good ideas to cut attractively.

I’ve cut 2 Camembert into wedges and overlapped arranged on sides in a circle. In the middle had pot of truffle honey with drizzler and then filled gap with blackberries. Looked great and all got eaten. Also use a fork to make regular spaced holes along one edge of hard cheeses and then use these as a guide to cut even sized wedges.

If people are seated then a regular cheeseboard is better, but I’m assuming this is people balancing plates and glasses and moving along a buffet table picking up food.