My brother recently placed an order for a great variety of different types of smoked cheeses that someone he works with was selling. He got to try a sample before purchasing and said that the ones he tasted were great, so we decided to give them all a try! These cheeses are insanely creamy, super flavorful, and perfectly handmade. This was the first time I actually got to try homemade cheese that someone made themselves which was a pretty cool experience. You wouldn’t believe how fresh the taste and texture of the cheese actually is! Being that we received all four flavors at once I needed to try every single one of them, of course! Therefore, I just HAD to put together the best sampling board that I could come up with! I made it all about the cheese with pops of color from a couple veggies, and some salty bites from salami roses, and seasoned beef sticks.

CHEESES:

1. Sriracha smoked cheddar.
2. Garlic coated smoked cheddar.
3. Cajun coated smoked cheddar.
4. Hot smoked cheddar.

• I also displayed some Brie cheese that I cut into personal triangles to add a soft texture and a pop of white to the board!

MEATS:

1. Salami Roses. This looks like it would probably be challenging but it is not at all! All you have to do it overlap slices of salami or whatever meat you choose to use inside of a wine glass and keeping piling pieces on top of each other in a circle.
2. Beef sticks! You can absolutely use spicy or cheese filled as well.

• I normally use more flavorful and exotic meats on my boards, but considering this was a sampling board for cheese I wanted to keep it simple on my choice of meats. I didn’t want to pick any meat that had intense flavor because I felt like it would take away from the true flavors of each one of the cheeses.

Garnishes!

1. Sliced green bell pepper.
2. Baby carrots.

• I usually garnish with fresh herbs or things like that, BUT you can truly make anything a garnish! I chose to use veggies as a garnish so you can use them as palette cleansers in between sampling each cheese!

JAMS/SWEETENERS:

1. Orange marmalade.

• Orange or citrus marmalade and jellies pair wonderfully with spicy and really intensely flavored cheeses!

You can serve boards like this while you’re having friends over for a wine tasting night, or if you love beer you can have flights out to sip on while you pick on delicious cheeses to pair exquisitely with each ale! I think this is an excellent idea on how to try something new that you bought because it allows you to sample in such an elegant, fancy way!

xoxo