Dinner party secret #1: the best cheese for charcuterie
Here's a little entertaining secret: the right charcuterie board can make your average dinner party exceptional. And do you know what makes your average charcuterie spread off-the-charts amazing? Cheese.
The trick is choosing the best cheese for charcuterie – slices and cubes of your average, bland cheese simply won't do. The best charcuterie boards are filled with cheeses that bring a world of taste and texture to the table. You want cheeses that stop guests in their tracks – cheeses that prompt the all-consuming question: "Where has this cheese been all my life?!"
When you've truly chosen the best cheese for charcuterie, the answer to that question will simply be "Wisconsin!" Our cheeses have been helping charcuterie boards up their game for 180 years. And here's another little secret we don't mind sharing: we've won more awards than any other state or country in the world.
We're happy to help you pick the best cheese for your charcuterie. Take a spin through our website to meet some amazing Wisconsin cheeses, and search our recipes for great cheese and charcuterie pairings. Or read on for tips on choosing the best cheese for charcuterie for your next amazing party.
The #1 best cheeses for charcuterie
When shopping for meat and cheese trays, you have an entire world of cheese options to choose from. For a spread that will astound your guests and bowl your taste buds over, you'll want to choose cheeses with an array of tastes and textures.
The best cheese for charcuterie includes:
- Soft cheeses like brie or ricotta
- Semi-firm cheeses like cheddar or emmentaler
- Hard cheeses like aged gouda or aged cheddar, romano, or parmesan
- Blue cheese like gorgonzola or a cheddar blue
- Crumbly cheese like ricotta salata or cotija
- Spreadable cheese like fresh goat cheese or cream cheese
The best way to serve cheese for charcuterie is at room temperature, so be sure to set your cheese out 30 to 60 minutes before guests arrive. And always use different knives for each cheese so that guests don't have to slice a blue cheese and a cheddar, for example, with the same utensil.
The best cheese for charcuterie hails from Wisconsin
When you're shopping for the best cheese for charcuterie, just look for a cheese with the Proudly Wisconsin Cheese badge on the label. Because with a chunk of Wisconsin's finest in your hands, you know you're holding some of the tastiest, highest-quality, most award-winning cheese on the planet.
You might say, "Whoa, really?" To which we'd say, "Um, yeah." We tend to err on the modest side when boasting about our cheese. But just get a little beer cheese in us, and we're likely to give you an earful about the quality of cheese from Wisconsin. Like, did you know we make more than 600 varieties, styles, and flavors of cheese – more than anywhere else in the world? Or that we have only one of two master cheesemakers programs on the planet?
Of course, when it comes to the best cheese for charcuterie – or the best cheese for anything, for that matter – you don't have to trust our opinion. You can taste the difference yourself. And when you do, we'll be waiting for that familiar widening of the eyes and shake of the head that says, "This cheese is unbelievable!"
Craving award-winning aged cheddar, pining for parmesan, or searching for a new cheese to try? The world’s best cheese is just a click away! Explore our directory of Wisconsin cheesemakers and retailers who offer online cheese shopping and get cheese shipped right to your door. What are you waiting for?
