The Ultimate Thanksgiving Cheese Board

Autumn Cheeseboard photo credit Lynda Balslev

The holidays can be stressful, so take the pressure down a notch and rely on a cheese board for easy entertaining. Cheeseboards are ideal accompaniments to cocktails, an inviting appetizer, or – heck – a fun grazing board for the big football game. With a little planning and a nod to the season, let this fall cheeseboard take center stage at your Thanksgiving holiday table.

What to include

Lean into the cooler weather with vibrant colors, robust flavors, and earthy textures. Think warm, woodsy, and evergreen with bright pops of seasonal fruit and garnishes. Aim strong with sharp, rich, and funky flavors to match the brisk and bracing weather. Select ash-rubbed cheeses, streaky blues, ‘shroomy bloomy rounds, and butterscotch-y wedges. If you are meat inclined, add savory slices of salty cured meats and spicy salami. Imbibe in spirits, too – in the glass, of course – but also as fortified infusions and washes for pungent cheeses and gamey meat.

The presentation

Choose black slate, wicker, and wood as a backdrop for a warm and rustic presentation. Line with hardy winter leaves, including purple and green kales, chards, and chicories. Garnish with mini-pumpkins and gourds, woody burdock roots and fragrant rosemary sprigs. Lift the board with swathes of vibrant fall fruit: cranberries and kumquats, persimmon and pear slices, crab-apples and pomegranate wedges. Weave seeded crackers and nutty breads around the cheeses and fill small bowls or sturdy leaves with dried fruit, candied nuts, and pumpkin seeds. Accompany with small jars filled with jammy chutneys or fruity compotes from Bon Magot to complement the strengths of the cheese and meat. Read more about Bon Magot.

With a nod to this quintessential North American holiday, keep this board continental and choose a selection of regional cheeses and charcuterie from the U.S.:

The Fawn by Deer Creek is an award-winning Cheddar cheese from Deer Creek. Handcrafted from rBST=free milk in Wisconsin and aged for over 90 days, it’s rich and nutty and delivers a full Cheddar flavor with a lingering sweetness.

Humboldt Fog Chevre by California’s Cypress Grove is an award-winning soft-ripened tangy goat cheese with a layer of ash running through the center. Often mistaken as a blue cheese, the bloomy rind exterior gives way to an oozy cream-line, and a cakey paste with a layer of vegetable ash.

Award-winning Rogue River Blue is a seasonal cheese that begins production in the fall, benefiting from the season’s cooler, wetter climate, which creates lush pastures and rich cow’s milk. It’s rich with a fudgy paste. Each wheel is wrapped in syrah grape leaves soaked in pear spirits, imparting a ripe, bright flavor into the cheese. Read more about why the Rogue River Blue is worth the hype and the high price.

Jasper Hill Harbison is a soft-ripened cheese with a rustic, bloomy rind, wrapped in spruce bark harvested from the woodlands of Jasper Hill in Vermont. Harbison is woodsy and sweet, balanced with lemon, mustard, and vegetal flavors, with a spoonable texture when softened. If available, opt for a limited-edition mini Harbison washed with Sandeman Founder’s Reserve Ruby Port, which adds layers oak, smoke, and rich red fruit.

Bourbon and Sour Cherry Salami is made by Brooklyn Cured which makes small batch charcuterie using meat with no antibiotics. The sweet and smoky flavor of bourbon is a perfect complement to pork – and to the fall season.

Wild Boar Salami by Creminelli is made with a mixture of field-harvested Texas wild boar and all-natural Duroc pork belly and seasoned with wine-soaked cloves and juniper berries. Wild boar meat is a classic fall game meat. It’s lean, tangy, and deep in color, with a flavor profile that takes on the notes of the boar’s wild diet which includes roots, grasses, nuts, and berries.

Celebrate Thanksgiving with the Ultimate Thanksgiving Cheese Board

What to include

The presentation