Beautifully curated cheese boards are the focal point of any holiday gathering. Plus, we love them because they’re super easy to make and are customizable to the size and food preferences of your guests.

The key to a great cheese board is having a variety of flavors, textures, and colors. You’ll build your board around a mix of cheeses: hard, soft, and blue. Then add in a few sweet and savory pairings, and voila! The perfect holiday appetizer.

To make the process even easier, our resident cheesemongers have created four signature cheese-board recipes that you can replicate hours before your next social event.

This cheese board will knock your guests socks off! “Kyle’s Hot & Smokey Cheese Board,” was created by Kyle Hickory, a longtime meat & seafood manager at our Woodstock store.

Please note: Our product offerings vary between our two stores. If a product on this list isn’t available at your local store, please speak to a Farmers’ Market employee to help make subsitutions.

Kyle’s Hot & Smokey Cheese Board

Serves 10-12 people

Ingredients

MY CHEESES

• Vermont Farmstead Cheddar
• Plymouth Cheese Smoked Cheddar
• Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese
• Any cream cheese you like

MY PROTEIN SELECTION

• 5^th Quarter Charcuterie Pate de Campagna
• Thin sliced proscuitto wrapped into  “roses”
• Thin sliced genoa

THE OTHER STUFF

• Blake Hill Savory Jam. I prefer roasted garlic.
• Everything bagel cashews
• Per’s Smoked Of Vermont Garlic Dip
• Sweet stuffed finger peppers
• Hot stuffed cherry peppers
• A Red Hen baguette cut into 1/3 inch rounds and toasted with olive oil and salt
• Hot honey
• Maple syrup
• Gherkins
• 1-3 empty cocktail glasses

Kyle’s Step-by-Step Guide

1. I always start my cheese board design by placing a block of cream cheese front and center. I like to build cheese boards on large butcher blocks, and yes, they do contain this many things regularly. Simplicity in design, complexity in flavor.
2. Next, the savory jam goes over the cream cheese.
3. Then, set the other cheeses and Pate de Campagna around the cream cheese to form a star pattern.
4. I either make a list to let people know what the cheeses are, or I cut the labels off the cheeses and place them next to the cheeses on the board.
5. Place the martini/cocktail glasses on the board (they’ll hold your sauces). I also like to put a can (of the same beer) next to the beer cheeses when I use them!
6. Genoa and proscuitto roses are placed in between the cheeses, as well as the stuffed peppers.
7. Leave a clear spot in the front right for Per’s Smoked Garlic Dip.
8. Place the toasted crostinis on the front of the board, and sprinkle the cashews over the top, usually with a few gherkins for good measure.
9. Fill the cocktail glasses with hot honey, bourbon maple syrup and or another savory jam!

Special note from Kyle: The more you overthink the layout, the worse you’ll make it look, generally. A big secret in the catering world is that a little bit of chaos on plate or board design is what gives it the look you’d never get after hours of trying. Besides, it’s cheese, meat and delicious snacks—you can’t go wrong!