Charcuterie & Cheese Boards | Basics with Babish

hey guys as we approach the holidays our dietary requirements for meat and cheese are elevated to dangerous levels prompting many hosts to furnish their guests with ornate platters of their favorite savory snacks these spreads might seem a little intimidating but as you'll discover there are very few ways that you can mess up charcuterie except to call it Chuck Cooper II which throngs of angry internet commenters will be quick to remind you refers only to meat let's get down to basics [Music] basics with babish and the all-new basics with babish comm are brought to you by squarespace head there now to checkout recipes from the show kitchen equipment lists my personal blog posts and more get 10% off your first Squarespace order with an offer code babish whether you need a domain website or online store make your next move with Squarespace alright folks so let's start with cheese and some of their different flavor profiles over here we have parmesan y'all know my man parmesan salty sweet waxy and just a little nutty then down below we have what I think is the French cousin de parmesan Mima let's it's cool-looking sweet nutty and expensive then over here we are headed to Spain with a little bit of manchego a firm sharp and some what's our cheese and perfect for pairing with cured meat then we have hunk of robiola or Brie's cousin that never takes a shower this stuff smells like slow death but has a surprisingly sweet and mild flavor then next up everybody's most or least favorite goat cheese this is a soft ripened goat cheese so it's a little creamier and more flavorful than your average chef then on the opposite end of the goat spectrum we have an aged to go Gouda this little guys 18 months old and has lost the distinct goat flavor in favor of sweeter and nuttier overtones then right behind that we have the more recognizable cow's milk Gouda which given its age would be normally sharp and salty but this is a double cream Gouda so you can actually see how much softer and creamier it is it's very sweet and nutty so it goes really well with sweet and nutty things then next door we've got my favorite formed the goat cheese can take midnight moon a six month old goat cheese that is sweet buttery and lightly crystalline so you're gonna get a little bit of crunch throughout its soft texture moving on over here we've got a classic aged Irish cheddar you guys have probably had this before but it's my cameraman's favorite so we had to get it it is sharp firm but slightly creamy and goes great with damn near anything now over here we have what's pretty much an American brie Mount Tam by cowgirl Creamery an incredibly soft buttery luxurious melt-in-your-mouth triple cream cheese that even Brie haters will love speaking of cheeses that people will love despite normally having an aversion to said Jesus the whatever over here we have something called gorgonzola Dolce a milder sweeter creamier version of its mouldy Italian French and British counterparts and lastly something a little less exotic to coat that hmm sorry ricotta sweet creamy mild and slightly granular it's got just as much a place on your cheese board as it does in your lasagna and we'll see why so this is obviously a very small smattering of the endless cheese options out there but hopefully it paints a picture of some of the basic genres and gives you a few ideas for your next classy night in next up someone better call Arby's cuz it appears as though we have the meats and way way better ones to up front we've got some hard cured stuff like this peppercorn sopressata which is gonna have a lot of funk from the aging process and a little bit of heat from the peppercorns of course you're gonna want to have your butcher slice this and virtually everything else paper-thin but some things you just got to slice yourself like this fennel salami which is likely gonna be a little bit more sour a little less funky but there mine cured meat flavors are going to vary wildly depending on their producer region and about a billion other factors over here though we've got a cured chorizo which based off its color alone is probably gonna be more spice forward with a bit of smoke and agent funk for either these joints you're gonna want to take off the casing yes it is perfectly edible delicious pig intestine but it has a texture that's practically reminiscent of dried out pig intestine it's really chewy and it's just gonna be easier on your guests to peel it off like so then once you've got the casing off go ahead and slice off a couple exemplary slices to show your guests yes it's okay cut a piece off eat it that's what this is here for don't ask me why but sometimes dinner guests need a little encouragement like that now we're gonna head back in time to before we sliced up that salami weird and talk about the pre sliced meats before me over here we've got a classic prosciutto sin Danielle sorry I don't know whether it keeps happening prosciutto sand annual who's salty oily tangy crudo flavors are contrasted here with prosciutto Cotto which is the same cut that has not been cured but simply cooked then over yonder we have my favorite thing in the world mortadella or Bologna for grown-ups it is fatty salty porky and thanks to the inclusion of some nuts nutty sorry anyway it's really really good and you should eat some then next to that we have my other favorite thing in the world spec this is prosciutto that has been smoked so in addition to all that oily tangy agent flavor it has smoked so beyond cured and Cook's meats like these there's a whole world of pates and terrains all them kinds of ways that you can bring tasty protein to the party but even all these studs need a wingman and here to fill that role are all these delicious accoutrements starting on the far we've got marcona almonds fried in olive oil these are way crunchy er and more flavorful than regular almonds and they are worth the extra cost then we've got these darling little pickles known as corny shell and they're delicious put one in your mouth see what happens and then we come to the matter of olives I like Nicoise olives which have a more savoury and less harsh flavor than Rickett Oh Oh be sure you check these little things for pits if like me you're not a frequent olive eater sometimes you forget let's try another one of these here and careful much better and then flanking the Nicoise we have our grocers choice mixed olives which you know are nice to have then over on the nutty side of things we have some smoked almonds these are gonna come in handy if you're serving strong imposing cheeses that need something a little kick to remind your guests that they are still alive then back here we've got some artichoke hearts packed with oil and herbs these are great on their own but go even better with a little bit of fresh mozzarella then adding background clockwise we've got some orange marmalade here it's very bitter and bright and it's one of the million ways that you can introduce fruit onto your board of meaty cheesy delights it's gonna go really nicely with free or goat cheese or telesia then we have a condiment that I think should be served at all tables alongside salt and pepper caramelized onion jam you can make this yourself but it's perfectly good out of the jar as is its neighbour over here a little sun-dried tomato puree not all this stuff is gonna be available anywhere you go so go to your grocer and mix and match like I hadn't seen this before some grilled Cipollini onions they had some so I bought some and now meeting them it is the meat and cheese boards circle of life and lastly I know this is pretty hipster but we have some spicy honey there's a reason that this stuff has caught on over the past few years it is delicious and it's gonna be especially good on our ricotta maybe with a few of those marcona almonds if we're feeling frisky and then I almost forgot about some fresh mission figs this will go really nicely with any of the sweet creamy cheese's there you have it we got our wingmen now who's driving the vehicles that will be driving our taste buds to flavortown are usually gonna be just bread or crackers we generally don't want anything too flavorful or Irby I'm going with a simply sliced baguette and some salted crackers we've got some high quality ingredients going onto our board and we don't want them overshadowed by roast garlic rosemary for cheese Asiago limited edition Triscuits anyway it's time for the big payoff laying out our cheese and charcuterie board you don't have to go into this with too much rhyme or reason I'm just gonna sort of localize different meats and cheeses by their varying levels of sweet and savory and putting the sweet stuff towards the center so we've got some ricotta and gorgonzola Dolce I've got parmesan pickles and speck on my left some artichoke hearts near the parmesan because I think that's what's gonna go best with smoked almonds by the midnight moon and grilled onions right near at the artichoke hearts the triple cream up front with a healthy scoop of caramelized onion jam and figs and then let's fill in the gaps with things that are probably gonna be eaten on their own nuts fruits and olives and there you have it one hell of a meat and cheese board you don't have to be culturally or regionally specific you don't have to be a city planner to lay one out you've just got to experiment try some new things and see what you like and I guarantee your guests will follow your example so I just want to talk a little bit about designing my new website with Squarespace they have this really intuitive easy-to-use platform that made it super easy even for somebody like me who's never done web design ever they have templates they do domains they have really good customer service is really an all-in-one one-stop shop for building a really slick website and I was really happy with the way mine came out if you want to try it for yourself you can start your 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Channel: Babish Culinary Universe

Views: 3,045,855

Rating: 4.9534769 out of 5

Keywords: meat and cheese plate, charcuterie board, cheese board, what to put on a cheese platter, charcuterie boards, what to put on a cheese board, cooking with babish, basics with babish, binging with babish, bwb, how to make a cheese board, cheese plate, meat and cheese boards, cheese boards, babbish, cheese and meat boards, pear qwerty horse, how to make a cheese board platter, how to style, how to make a cheese plate, how to style a cheese board

Id: VnrScNQDcEQ

Length: 8min 36sec (516 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 06 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Idratherbeupsidedown]

u/OliverBabish you’re hosting the subreddit Christmas party, right? I wish I knew my way around the cheeses like you do! Also, I wish rural Oklahoma has butchers where I could find meat like that.

[u/callmederp]

Normally I think taking photos of food can be annoying, but I had to get a shot of this board my father made for last year's New year's Eve: tasted better then it looked

Anyone else have any boards they wanna share?

[u/rileyrulesu]

While this probably doesn't beat the "Every meat burrito" It's gotta beat "Eggs Wodehouse" for the second most expensive dish, right?

[u/CraptainHammer]

He said "flavortown" 😂

[u/deadmallsanita]

Don't forget the toothpicks so people aren't touchin' everything. :)

[u/Regional_King]

He started talking about pâté and I was like yes he’s gonna make some. Nope. Heartbroken. I eat boatloads of the stuff. On a thin sliced baguette nonless.

[u/deadmallsanita]

I had no clue that some cheeses were crystalline. I threw away some cheese I had once because I thought it had gone bad and the crystalline felt weird to me. oops