How to Create the Perfect Christmas Cheese Board

Christmas is all about sharing and spending time with our loved ones. But once all the presents have been unwrapped, and you’re relaxing after a fabulous dinner on Christmas Day or a few days later, there’s one more thing you can share with friends and family.

No matter what you have on the dinner table this year, at Christmas we can always make room for a nice treat later on. But instead of the usual cakes, chocolate, and salty snacks, why not create something memorable?

A Christmas cheese board is a fantastic addition to the festivities, providing a delicious experience for the whole family. If that sounds like a good idea to you, don’t settle for boring, store-bought cheese, and trust Hartington Creamery to help you design the best cheese board for Christmas.

 

What to Include on a Christmas Cheese Board

The perfect Christmas cheese board contains both cheese (unsurprisingly) and cheese accompaniments. The latter is often the trickiest part to get right, as you want to have plenty of options that complement your cheeses perfectly.

Our accompaniment selection includes:

• Biscuits
• Chutneys
• Pates
• Cured Meats

All of these are fantastic options that suit any palette, and we’ll go into more detail about them in a moment.

But no matter what accompaniments you choose, the star of the show is the cheese, and we have create the best artisan cheeses in the country using traditional methods that bring out the most flavour.

 

The Best Cheese for Cheese Boards

Naturally, you should take all of our suggestions with a pinch of cheese, as all tastebuds are different, and you’ll want to cater to specific people. If your loved ones are new to the world of artisan cheese, adding plenty of classic favourites such as White Stilton (the Uk’s favourite white cheese) and Skegness Blue cheese ensures that there won’t be any ‘no, thank yous’.

But if you do want to liven things up, we have plenty of bold cheese flavours that you can add to your cheese board. This ranges from the nutty flavour of our traditional Red Derby to some of our wilder creations like our Chocolate and Chilli cheese. All are packed with flavour, and can be a big surprise if your guests don’t expect it (albeit a nice one!).

All of our cheese is created, packaged, and stored using traditional methods. But what does that mean?

Well, we’ve been crafting artisan cheese for over a century now, so you can imagine how much things have changed in the cheesemaking world. However, with higher demands and the use of more machinery, flavour was lost. Most cheesemakers are factories, churning out their cheese as fast as possible and adding preservatives and artificial colour and flavour to try and replicate the authentic taste.

If you care about the quality of your cheese, and only want the best cheese for Christmas, look no further than our humble little farm in Derbyshire. Behind our stone walls we’re blending the old with the new, using traditional methods such as stirring the curds by hand to unlock more flavour, and letting the cheese age naturally for the same reason. But you still get a modern service; fast deliveries and modern packaging so that it’ll arrive fresh and keep for longer.

Regardless of how good the cheese is, the quality of the cheese accompaniments can make or break a cheese board. Thankfully, we’ve worked just as hard to make sure ours never let the side down.

 

The Best Accompaniments for a Christmas Cheese Board

If you choose us to help create the perfect cheese board, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to accompaniments.

The most popular by far are the biscuits made by our partner Popti. Cheese and crackers is an iconic combination, but we take things in a more artisan direction. Popti’s range are packed with flavour, but don’t take away the taste of the cheese, instead complementing them and adding a nice crunch to counteract the cheese’s smoothness.

When you’re trying a few different types of cheese, you want to add some universally loved flavours. That’s why we also include chutneys; all made from locally sourced ingredients in line with our traditional values. The sweetness these add work well with any cheese, and is a nice alternative to adding physical fruit to your cheese board.

In a similar vein we also have our pates, which can be spread onto biscuits or the cheese itself to boost the flavour even further. And if you want to serve more than just cheese, we also have our cured charcuterie meats to add some more bold flavour.

Last but certainly not least, no cheese board is complete without liquid accompaniments. When you’re tasting multiple cheeses and chutneys, you want to cleanse your pallet between each flavour sensation, so your tastebuds don’t miss anything.

Wine and cheese is a very popular combination, with the fruitiness of the wine adding to the flavour. But if you want to push the boat out you can include our vintage port or even real ales – perfect for anyone who isn’t a wine fan.

Instead of ordering all your cheese separately, the easiest way to get all you need is via our cheese gift hampers. These contain a selection of cheese, chutneys, biscuits, and something to wash it all down with. And the best part is that they’re fully customisable, so you can pick and choose the perfect cheese and accompaniments for your cheese board.

 

How to Design a Christmas Cheese Board

But how do you turn a cheese board into a Christmas cheese board? Well, it’s all about the presentation, and we give you the freedom to customise to your heart’s content. Whether you want to focus on the sweet stuff, by adding chutneys, cured meat, and wine, or take a more classic approach and have mostly cheese and biscuits, we’re here to help.

All of our cheeses are perfect for any occasion, from enjoying on your own to big events like weddings and parties. But they range in colour and flavour, so your cheese board can look and taste exactly how you imagine it.

Add to the magic of Christmas and get the family together for a cheese and wine evening, or put a mini cheese board together for when all the festivities are over and you’re watching your favourite Christmas film.

No matter your plans, we’d love to be a part of it by providing some of the best cheese in the UK!