Meat and cheese trays are always a hit at family gatherings. You can serve them on the table as-is, or you can serve them alongside rolls or bread slices so your guests can make sandwiches with the meat and cheese. They are so much fun to garnish and make look pretty! Plus, they are SO EASY to make up. You can whip up a meat and cheese tray faster than you can make most appetizers. We have LOTS of great charcuterie board ideas! If a charcuterie board is what you are looking for, check out these fun recipes:How to Make a Charcuterie BoardChristmas Charcuterie BoardDessert Charcuterie BoardHalloween Charcuterie BoardBreakfast Charcuterie Board If you are going for the charcuterie board look, start with the board and assemble the meats separately around the board, dividing by types of meat. Do the same for cheese until the board looks full. Lastly, add bread, lettuce, and fresh fruits to garnish the board and fill in the spots that are empty. Make the perfect tray that will be loved by both kids and adults!
How to Make a Meat and Cheese Tray
Turkey – Try honey, maple, cajun, or smoked turkey. Ham – Black forest, honey, smoked, Virginia, maple, or brown sugar. Roast beef – Choose a thin cut to a thicker cut of roast beef, depending on your preference. Salami – This is a type of cured meat that is from pork, beef, or veal. Salami is flavored with garlic and other herbs to add extra flavor. Pepperoni – This reddish-colored meat is popular on pizzas, but is perfect for adding an extra boost to any sandwich. Pepperoni comes in various sizes that is easy to decorate a tray with. Pastrami – This is made from beef brisket, cured in spices, and cold cut. The main ingredient of spices in pastrami is fresh black pepper. Usually, on the edges of the thicker meat, you can see and feel the pepper. Bologna – A mixture of meats can make up bologna. It is a softer meat that is popular with younger kids. Corned beef – An Irish traditional beef that can be made into a deli meat. It still has the same great flavor as a roast.
Know your meats – It is a good idea to separate the turkey and the roast beef on a deli platter. The roast beef is really dark and can discolor the turkey if it is sitting next to it. Rolling and folding meat – For purposes of folding and/or rolling the meat, you will want to have it sliced fairly thin. You can ask your deli to slice it as they would a typical “sandwich slice”. It will be easiest to ask your deli to give you the slice amount rather than the weight you are looking for. For meat and cheese trays, you will want ten slices of each kind of meat. Serving deli meat – When preparing the meat to be placed on the tray, you can either roll it or fold it. Rolling is great for when you are serving the meats on their own (not as sandwiches). If you are wanting to use the meat for your guests to make sandwiches, it is better to use the folding method. That way it is easier to pick up and place on the roll or bread. When folding, you just fold like an accordion, back and forth with about 1 1/2″ folds. Stack meat – When stacking the folded meat, try to make it look like a pyramid. You will put four folds (or rolls) of meat close together on the tray, then three folds of meat directly over those, then two, then one. You will do the same for each of the meats until you have several stacks of meat. This works well on any shaped platter you are using.
Cheddar – There are several different flavors of cheddar cheese. White cheddar and regular (yellow) cheddar both have great flavoring and are popular on sandwiches. Swiss – Swiss or baby Swiss cheese is cheese with holes in the cheese. It is a sweet and mild flavor that everyone loves to pair with roast beef deli meat. Swiss cheese can also be melted. Provolone – Complex and sharp flavor with sliced provolone. Pepper Jack – Add a kick of spice to your tray with pepper jack cheese. Speckled with peppers (often jalapeño) and spices, this cheese is a favorite on sandwiches. Havarti –This is similar to Monterey Jack cheese. It has a buttery and sweet flavor to it. Muenster – A mild and creamy cheese that goes well with dijon mustard.
Stacking cheese – Once again, ask your deli to go by the slice instead of the weight. You will want eight “sandwich” sized slices for each kind of cheese. Once you have your cheese squares, stack them directly on top of one another and slice them all diagonally (do this separately for each kind of cheese). This will give you two stacks of 8 triangles for each kind of cheese (so four stacks total). Separate the cheese – Taking your stacks of cheese, you may have to separate some of the slices a little to get the perfect fan effect. Or you can separate the cheese and place them on top of each other one at a time to make the fan, but it might just take a little longer. When placing them on the tray, put each “fan” in a different direction and fill up the remaining space on the tray. Pick the right cheese – Because this is a deli tray, we used sliced cheeses. Crumbly, soft cheeses, or spreadable cheeses like blue cheese, feta, goat cheese, or brie, are not the best for deli-style platters. Those types of cheese work best for more of a charcuterie-style cheese board.
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