Cheese Platter Idea

Looking for a great cheese platter idea?

The perfect cheese platter adds sizzle, flair, and flavor to any dinner party, game night or a casual evening with friends. But when you care about cheese – and who doesn't? – you don't want to just throw a few slices of processed yellow cheese on a platter and call it a day. You want to find a great cheese platter idea. Whether it's the right charcuterie, or the right mix of nuts and fruit preserves for flavor, pepper jack almond pecan cheese balls or a Tuscan sausage, beans and fontina cheese dip, a great cheese platter idea that's full of flavor, texture, and presentation can knock any meat and cheese board out of the park.

In Wisconsin, our best cheese platter ideas always start with a selection of Wisconsin's finest cheeses. With more than 600 styles, flavors, and varieties to choose from, deciding on the perfect cheese platter idea requires a lot of sampling of cheese. Sure, it's a lot of work, but that's how things roll when you're living the cheese life. (First one to the cheese counter has dibs on the ricotta salata.)

Check out these cheese platter ideas

A terrific cheese platter idea is all about variety in taste, texture, and combinations of flavor. We like to build our cheese boards with combinations of cheese, meats and lots of extras for flavor and texture accents.

For variety in cheese, a tasty cheese platter idea should include:

• Hard and semi-hard cheeses like aged cheddar, , parmesan, romano, or any alpine-style cheese
• Soft and semi-soft cheeses like feta, burrata, stracchino, brick, and muenster
• Blue cheeses like gorgonzola or cheddar blue

For meats, your best cheese platter idea might include:

• Whole-muscle cuts like prosciutto, coppa, and Jamón Ibérico
• Cured sausages like salami, soppressata or chorizo
• Patés and spreads like duck liver moose or salmon rillettes

After you select your cheese and meats, you can fill in the space between them with all kinds of flavor accents, including:

• Bread: slices of baguette, hearty crackers, and toasted crostini
• Fruit: sliced apples and pears, grapes and berries, or dried fruits like dried cherries and sun-dried tomatoes
• Jams and spreads: olive tapenade, cherry preserves, fig jam, honey
• Nuts: Marcona almonds, candied pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts
• Dips: roasted red pepper dip or hummus
• Mustards: whole-grain mustard or pecan-honey mustard
• Vegetables: olives, pickles, artichokes or sweet cherry red peppers

Cheese platter idea #1: more Wisconsin cheese

Here's the best idea for a cheese platter you'll ever get: buy Wisconsin cheese. It's not just because there are more than 600 varieties to choose from; it's because Wisconsin makes the tastiest, most award-winning, highest-quality cheese in the universe.

For some, them's fighting words. Sure, there's lots of great cheese all over the globe. We hear Italy does a good job, not to mention Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands. But when you want cheese from the cheese capital of the world, it's got to be Wisconsin.

Our cheesemakers have won more awards – 5,552, not that we're counting – than any other state or nation on the planet. We've been making cheese here since before Wisconsin was a state – that's more than 175 years of cheesemaking tradition and innovation.

So next time you're dreaming up some fabulous cheese platter ideas, make sure that cheese board is built with 4 to 6 of Wisconsin's finest.