While any time of year is great for making, serving, and enjoying cheese boards, our favorite season for constructing these tasty compilations is the Summer. That time of year when everything is in bountiful supply and the year's harvest of bright fruits and berries are at their most flavorful and juicy. A feast for the eyes as well as the mouth, adorn your cheese board with the beautiful jewel tones of bright red strawberries, golden honeycomb, and crunchy nuts, the perfect complement to your creamy wheels of Chevre and robust hunks of smoked Cheddar. Below we have everything you’ll need to create an elegant and delicious meat and cheese board all your guests will be raving about for weeks to come!
How to Make a Summer Cheese Board
The ideal addition to any celebration, the cheese board takes all the best parts of Summer: fruit, cheese, berries, crackers, and wine, and brings them all together on one lovely serving tray. As the name specifies, cheese is the star of the show here. We think presenting a variety of flavors and textures serves best so everyone has the chance to enjoy an array of pairings.
Something creamy and spreadable like a good goat’s cheese is ideal for smearing onto hunks of fresh crusty baguettes or spooning onto walnuts and drizzling in raw honey. Something firm and sliceable like a savory, Manchego is great for cubing and skewering between a couple of buttery Spanish olives. Last but not least, you’ve got to have a well-aged cheese. Crumbly and bursting with bold umami taste, it makes the perfect partner to all manner of fruits, from juicy berries to the deep sweetness of dried figs.
A trifecta of cheeses offering you all the foundational flavors and textures. If any gaps or holes remain, fill them with delicate bowls of nuts and olives, dainty jars of mustards and preserves, or a variety of artisan crackers thick and studded with seeds. Armed with these basic principles, go forth, and create the best dang Summer cheese board your friends and family members have ever seen.