Cheese for Cheese Board

Choosing cheese for the cheese board

Is there any greater joy – or any greater agony – than choosing cheese for a cheese board? There's the thrill of picking up a sharp white cheddar that's been aged two years, or the delight in finding a burrata that's fresh as morning dew. But there's also the anguish – choosing a great gruyere means leaving a marvelous muenster behind. And going for the gorgonzola may mean letting go of the limburger.

Picking cheese for a cheese board is all about trade-offs. In Wisconsin, we feel your pain. When you're home to the tastiest, highest-quality, most award-winning cheese in the universe, choosing cheese for the cheese board can be a soul-searching endeavor. That's why we eat so much cheese – we want to spend as much time as possible with the pride of Wisconsin.

As you're looking for the best cheeses for your cheese board, take a spin around our website to meet some amazing cheeses that will make the job harder – in a good way. Or search our recipes and posts to find ideas for the best charcuterie boards. And for some of our favorite tips on choosing cheese for a cheese board, read on.

Recommendations: the best cheese for a cheese board

When choosing cheese for a cheese board, you'll want a mix of textures and tastes. Here are some of our favorites in each category cheese.

• Hard cheese: aged cheddar, parmesan, romano, asiago
• Semi-firm: cheddar, provolone, gouda, gruyere, muenster, butterkäse
• Soft: brie, mozzarella, burrata, mascarpone, stracchino
• Crumbly: feta, goat cheese, blue cheese, ricotta salata
• Specialty: a black truffle pecorino or a smoked cheese like smoked gouda

You may also want to include a cheese dip made from melted asadero cheese, for example.

For a full-flavored cheese platter, you should also consider:

• Charcuterie: cured sausages, whole-muscle cuts, patés, and terrines
• Bread: hearty crackers, toasted crostini, slices of baguette
• Nuts: pistachios, candied hazelnuts, marcona almonds, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts
• Fruit: olives, grapes, berries, pomegranate, figs, dates, or slices of apples and pears
• Vegetables: pickles, pickled vegetables, roasted artichokes
• Spreads and dips: hummus, artichoke dip, tapenade
• Accents: honey

Make it Wisconsin cheese for cheese board triumph

Here's an easy way to choose the best cheese for a cheese board: just make sure every cheese is a Wisconsin cheese.

For starters, you'll have a wealth of choices. We make more styles, flavors, and varieties of cheese than anywhere else on earth – 600 and counting. That includes all the Old World cheeses from gouda to gorgonzola and parmesan to provolone. Plus, all the hometown heroes like muenster, brick, and Colby. And amazing artisan cheeses like butterkäse, fenugreek gouda, and juustaleipa.

The Wisconsin cheese on your cheese board is likely to be an award-winner, too. We've won more than 5,500 awards for our cheese – more than any other state or country. That's what you'd expect from a state where everybody dreams in cheese.

So, as you're shopping for cheese for your cheese board, just look for the Proudly Wisconsin Cheese badge on the label. That way, you're sure to pick a winner every time.