Preparing a Game Day Meat & Cheese Tray | Entertaining Ideas
A combination of cheeses, cured meats and accoutrements perfect for game day entertaining. This platter features Cheddar, Colby Jack and Gouda cheese, summer sausage and peppered salami and pickled okra. Also featured is a red pepper jelly and a super simple homemade mustard blend. See recipe below
Whenever I am taking a cheese tray into consideration, I always think about what the event is going to be like. Is it going to be casual or elegant? Will people be drinking wine, cocktails or beer? Will it be mostly women? Or are the men allowed to come too? And, what about kiddos? Whoa, buddy. Does that throw a wrench in things.
Once I have the type of event narrowed down, the cheese selections become much easier. In this case, we are focusing on Game Day entertaining. So the event will be casual, men will definitely be present and I think it’s safe to assume beer will be the beverage of choice. So now my mind wanders to beer pairings. What cheeses go best with beer and casual entertaining? My mind immediately goes to Cheddar, a super versatile cheese that pairs well with smoked meats. Another thought: When I think about hosting on a game day, I know the grill is going to be smoking. Now my mind has wondered over to a nice Smoked Gouda Cheese. It is customary to have three cheeses on a cheese tray. A Colby Jack is mild in flavor and great for snacking. So there we have it. Three cheeses ready for plating…almost. Slice the cheese into fairly thick bite-sized pieces for your guests. You want to allow 2-3 nibbles per slice.
Onto the meats: So, I’m thinking “man foods” now. Summer sausage and peppered salami come to mind. These cured meats will pair wonderfully with the cheeses above and are overall crowd pleasers. Make sure to slice sausages thin, as they can be fairly chewy.
Next, we will mosey on over to what I call “flavor enhancers.” In this case a nice strong mustard blend would pair well with the sausage and also cut down on the somewhat “fatty” feel sausage can leave on ones tongue. Another nice addition, that pairs very well with our selected cheeses is a red pepper jelly. Serve alongside crackers and encourage your guests to stack crackers with a slice of cheese and a tiny dallop of jelly. One last addition you might consider, save the crackers, is a pickled element such as tiny dill pickles, pickled okra or pitted olives.
For plating, start with the bulkiest item, in this case the flavor enhancers. Place them in small condiment bowls down the center of the tray. Next, add the sliced sausages in a fish scale pattern opposite on another diagonally on the platter. Add the sliced cheeses alongside the sausages. Use crackers to fill in the gaps. Serve and enjoy!
Featured Items:
Cheddar Cheese
Smoked Gouda Cheese
Colby Jack Cheese
Summer Sausage
Peppered Salami
Stone Wheat Crackers
Saltine Crackers
Pickled Okra
Red Pepper Jelly
Mustard Blend (directions below)
For the mustard blend:
Mix together 3 tbsp Dijon Mustard and 3 tbsp Whole Grain Mustard. And, voila! That’s it! Doesn’t get much easier than that.
Would pair well with:
