Parker’s Table cheese expert Simon Lehrer on putting together the perfect spread

Parker’s Table resident cheese expert Simon Lehrer is a master of the cheese and charcuterie board craft. He recently shared a few tips on how to put together the perfect spread, complete with wine pairings. And if you’re not drinking? That’s fine, too, he says. The same rules that apply to pairing wines with cheeses are transferable to nonalcoholic beverages as well. 

In your opinion, what makes a cheese and charcuterie board such a popular piece of an entertaining spread?

First and foremost, a cheese and charcuterie board is rich and satiating. You can put it out there in relatively small quantities, and everybody is going to be satiated by it. Also it is easy, mostly because of the fact that it is much more shelf-stable than a lot of other things in the refrigerator. You can have it sitting around for whenever the occasion happens to pop up and  bring it out at any point; having it on hand makes that easy enough to do. It is also just elegant enough where it makes something feel like a special occasion. It is not something that most people are going to have five nights a week but maybe they will have it once a week, whether that is with friends coming over or on a Saturday night in for Netflix. It’s easy, comfortable and, most importantly, satiating. You can have as much or as little as you like and then put it away for another day.

What are some rules of thumb to consider when assembling a board?

The quick and easy rule is that you want meat, cheese, something sweet, something savory, and something crunchy. Those are the guidelines, and if you’ve got everything like that on your cheeseboard, you’ve gotten all of the important parts on there. Sweet can be jelly, jam, fruit, honey, or even chocolate. Savory could be potato chips, fresh herbs, nuts, or fresh crusty bread, both of which also count as your crunchy. Just make sure that there is some differentiation of textures on there because cheeses are always so creamy and soft and rich that you want some texture there.

And what about the selection of cheeses and meats?

There are so many different ways you can go with that, but I always tell people to start with what they like and expand from there. It’s nice to have cheeses from different animals—goat, cow, sheep, buffalo—so that you will have a vast array of flavors. The same goes for meat. You can do something from ducks, pigs, or cows because that will give you different textures and flavors. And you need to consider whether you want to do whole muscle cures, ground meats, or pates.

What about things like serving temperatures and how you serve the board? Something I’ve always wondered about is how many knives you need for different cheeses. I always feel bad if there’s only one, and I’m using it for both the stilton and the brie.

Charcuterie boards or cheese boards in general are really an informal way of serving, so one knife is fine. Now, there are different shaped knives for different types of cheeses—a paddle knife for spreadable cheeses or a knife with a forked end on it for hard cheeses. As you get more formal in your setting, you can give everybody a cheese knife with their plates; stepping up to the next level would be a cheese cart, where you are getting served. In that setting, everyone would have specific knives with each one of the cheeses. The same goes for individual cheese plates. However, on a simple charcuterie and cheese board, one knife is plenty. If you want to put two or three on there so that multiple people at a larger gathering can use them—assuming as soon as you put the board down everybody is going to want to jump into it—that would work, too. 

As far as serving temperatures, you always want to serve your cheese at room temperature. The only reason you ever put cheese in the refrigerator is to preserve it, but it really shouldn’t be in the refrigerator at all. At my house, I keep most of my cheeses on the counter and snack on them every day. Soft cheeses especially should be eaten at room temperature because they have a fuller, more intense flavor that way. The idea is that you will end up eating less of them at room temperature because they are more satisfying, but really, every time you walk by you will want to taste them. They also funkify your kitchen pretty quickly, but it does help to remind you that you have a good cheese in the house and you should be having that instead of butter on your toast or a little truffled triple cream on your potatoes rather than sour cream. You’re going to be extra happy that way.

What about pairing wines and cheeses? Are there general rules, perfect pairings, or no-no’s that you always stick to?

Like any pairings, bigger flavors go with bigger flavors, lighter, softer flavors go with lighter, softer flavors, high acid goes with high acid, and low acid goes with low acid. Those are the general ideas that you try to stick with. A really classic pairing is stilton and port wine. Here, you have this big red sweet wine with a salty, rich, creamy and intense blue. That really works well. So does fresh, tart, lively goat cheeses with sauvignon blanc, specifically Sancerre, which is light, bright and tart. Bordeaux and brie work well together because both the wine and the cheese are big, rich and funky. There are two classic pairings with Champagne or bubbles: triple creams because the scrubbing bubbles of the Champagne strip all of the fat from the cheese off your palate, and fresh goat cheeses—whether herbed, with lemon curd or plain—because both the wine, which is carbonated, and the cheese are very acidic. 

When it comes to things you should avoid, it’s ever so rare that you will run into something that just doesn’t work. Sometimes, you’ll find that with wines that are really acidic and tannic. However, my rule of thumb is that if you don’t like the taste of something individually, stay away from it as a pairing. If you don’t like port wine and you don’t like blue cheese, pairing them is not going to magically fix them for you. Stick with things you like, and find other things that amplify that.

I think another thing that is great about cheese and charcuterie pairings is that you don’t have to do so with an alcoholic option. As more and more people are trying other nonalcoholic options or other beverages in general, you can still have all sorts of great pairing options with cheese and charcuterie. That’s what makes charcuterie and cheese boards so accessible.