Charcuterie Board Tips

For Pairing Condiments With Artisanal Cheeses

Fruit Jams

Fig jams are the most popular choice for charcuterie boards featuring artisanal cheeses, followed by apricot and raspberry. What tastes amazing on bread and in desserts does not taste the same when paired with cheese, meant to be enjoyed for its distinct and subtle flavours. You can go for a French cheese charcuterie board with fig jams, which pair well with softer cheeses like brie and camembert, as well as the nose-hair-curling blue cheese. Apricot jam goes well with aged cheeses like cheddar and gruyere, and the tart raspberry jam finds its match in the rich French Délice de Bourgogne cheese.

Hot Honey 

Thanks to Greek food being hot on the internet, hot honey (which is American with Mexican roots) found its way into everything, including charcuterie boards. Sweet and spicy flavours are perfect for charcuterie boards and taste amazing with goat cheese, which tends to be tangy, and the semi-hard French cheese, Gruyère, which is nutty. It also goes along with the delicacy of prosciutto and the sharp taste of blue cheese.

Here are some charcuterie board tips: Make your own hot honey by simmering a cup of honey with a few tablespoons of red chilli flakes for a few minutes to infuse the honey with the chillies. Once cool, mix in a bit of apple cider vinegar. You can change the kind of chilli in the hot honey by choosing dried red chillies and grinding them into flakes. Firm and nutty cheeses like manchego or aged Gouda taste incredibly well with the spicy finish of hot honey. You can also try softer cheese like brie with it.

Tapenade

Grab that bottle of brined olives from your refrigerator that you might have bought overambitiously, and forgotten about and make the classic spread. Pick a bunch of olives (black, green, or both), fresh or brined, and finely chop or puree them, then mix them with capers, anchovies, and olive oil. 

Tapenade adds the briny third leg to your charcuterie board's flavour triangle, earning its place next to artisanal cheeses. Try a spoonful of it alongside the crumbly aged cheddar or a young pecorino, an Italian hard cheese. The bitterness of the olives and the saltiness of the anchovies will still carry the dish, but you can give it a desi touch by adding some malt vinegar.

Kasundi 

In Bengal, kasundi, the classic sidekick for fish fry, chicken cutlets, and raw mango chaat, can also be used as a condiment for cheeses. Made from a fermented mixture of black and yellow mustard seeds, green chillies, ginger, salt, and turmeric, along with vinegar, kasundi has the same pungent, sinus-clearing quality as Dijon mustard. Hot charcuterie board tips right here: Add it to a French cheese board to pair its nose-tingling flavour with soft, creamy cheeses.

Brie or camembert creates the same contrastural feel that fig jam does, but you get a kick of the fiery mustard and the acidity of the vinegar used to ferment it. It also goes surprisingly well with semi-hard cheeses like Gouda, where the mustard helps you taste the cheese’s buttery flavour, rather than masking it.

Balsamic Reduction

Acidic and briny components come together in a balsamic reduction, with concentrated flavours from the vinegar. It is one of the few condiments that goes well with both warm and cold cheeses on a charcuterie board. You can drizzle the reduction over a warm slice of baked camembert, or a chilled block of Parmesan or aged Gouda. It adds a sheen to cheeses that makes even the simplest of cheeses taste impeccable.

The reduction only needs balsamic vinegar and a little sugar or honey, simmered on the stove until it coats the back of a spoon. You are making a glaze, so it needs to have that syrupy consistency. The process brings out the sweetness in the vinegar, makes it less acidic, and reduces some sour notes. If you let it linger on the taste buds, you will find faint hints of cherry, fig and molasses.

Naga Chilli Chutney 

If you want some unusual charcuterie board tips, pair this truly Indian and unique condiment with your cheeses. Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost Pepper, known as raja mircha in Nagaland, is the King chilli across Northeast India and holds the record as one of the hottest chillies in the world, and a chutney made from it that no local chilli can quite match. Try the wet version with the chillies pounded along with roasted tomato, garlic, and fermented fish or soybeans.

If making in bulk, you can try it with grilled meats, fish, and vegetables, and on a cheese board, try a small dab next to a firm, nutty cheese like gruyère or an aged Gouda. The intense smoky heat of this chilli brings out the richness of these cheeses. This is not a condiment that needs restraint, especially if you have a low spice tolerance. The sting of the chilli arrives in a wave after the cheese has already hit the spot.

Membrillo 

This is a sweet fruit paste often served with hard and semi-hard cheeses like manchego, a pairing that has earned its place on cheese boards across Spain and beyond. It has a distinct saltiness that is a trademark in aged cheese, and this one is made with sheep's milk; also try Ossau-Iraty or Idiazabal. Such cheeses provide a good contrast to the fragrant, floral sweetness of the fruit paste. You can also try the pungent, sharp blue cheeses of Roquefort or Cabrales, as well as goat cheeses like chèvre.

Membrillo is much like the fruit jellies you might find at your local market, made by cooking quince (a kind of fruit) with lemon juice and sugar until it thickens. Since quince is very high in pectin, it sets into a slicable chunk rather than the spreadable consistency of a jam.

Charcuterie Board Tips, Cheeses and Condiments

Fruit jellies, kasundi, olive and fruit spreads, and more are perfect for enjoying your favourite French cheese or any other artisanal cheeses. Take inventory of the kind of cheeses you have, whether soft, semi-soft, or hard, like brie, goat cheese, or Gouda. Then pick the condiment and enjoy your cheeses on a relaxed Sunday afternoon or night.