Illustration by Sam Woolley.

A cheese plate can be many things. A party platter, a snack, even a meala cheese plate can all of these things and more. It doesnt require any cooking, but crafting a perfectly harmonious plate of delicious dairy is a delicate balancing act, and some forethought is required.

It can be easy to go overboard with both cheeses and accouterments, but having a clear vision of the type of cheese plate you want to present to the world can keep you on track. But before you can do that, you need to decide how many cheeses you want to serve.

There are two routes you can take when presenting one cheese. You can choose a crowd-pleaserlike a good sharp cheddar or an excellent wheel of brieor you can go with a slightly more divisive show-stopper like a super funky blue, or the stinky-though-tasty Taleggio. In either case, youll need at least one carby delivery system and one complementary extra. Serious Eats has a good primer on various tasty types of cheese, but here are a few of my favorite ways to let a single cheese shine:

Another good way to focus on one cheese is to bake it or marinate it. Baked brie en croute, goat cheese with tomato sauce, and marinated mozzarella or feta all make great cheesy centerpieces.

Im not a fan of the even-numbered cheese plate for some reason, but if you are only going to serve two cheeses, I would do one hard and one soft, and do them really well. Three is my favorite number to serve however, because it gives you the freedom to throw something wild and crazy into the mix. Here are some of my favorite picks for each category:

To ensure a good variety of flavors, you can try picking one from each cheese-bearing animal (cow, sheep, goat), but Ive used my hard, soft, fun template with much success. (That template seems much dirtier than it actually is, now that Ive typed it out.)

Now that we have our cheeses chosen, were free to think about fun add-ons. It can be very easy to go crazy here, so I try to limit myself to one sweet thing, one salty thing, one sweet saucy thing, and one savory saucy thing. Youll also need bread and crackers.

I know thats a lot of foodie info to take in at once, so well recap real quick: unless you are going the one cheese route we covered earlier, my platonic ideal of a cheese plate is:

1 hard cheese + 1 soft cheese + 1 fun cheese

Served on:

simple toasted toast points + a smattering of seedy or fruity crackers

Paired with:

1 sweet thing + 1 salty thing + 1 sweet saucy thing + 1 salty saucy thing

This may seem like a lot, but Ive never had much in the way of leftovers and, if the unthinkable does happen you are plagued by excess cheese, you can always make cheese crisps or fromage fort. Everyone wins.

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How to Craft the Perfect Cheese Plate - Skillet - Lifehacker - Lifehacker