A real holiday table cannot be complete without a dish with a delicious selection of meat delicacies and cheese. This simple and effective appetizer will not only delight guests with its taste, but can also become a real table decoration.
A beautiful slice of sausage and cheese, the photo of which delights casual visitors to professional culinary sites, is not as complicated in design as it seems at first glance. In order to beautifully and originally decorate a cheese and meat plate, it is enough to know a few small secrets.
Table cuts and their features
Sliced sausage and cheese, beautifully presented on a plate, are not difficult to create if you choose the right products:
- as fresh as possible;
- in sealed packaging to reduce moisture;
- with an intact shell, without damage;
- no dyes.
It is also important to choose the right working tools: knives with thin blades. Flat plates of different diameters are chosen as dishes. Some meat ingredients can be served with sauces, but not necessarily.
You can lay out the slices in different ways:
- layers. The simplest option is when the diameter of each layer tapers towards the center of the dish;
- layers and rolls. Each ingredient is rolled into a tube. Several layers are laid out. The dish turns out voluminous and looks rich, even if there are few ingredients;
- layers and skewers. Several layers of varying diameters are laid out, starting with the largest. There is a little empty space in the center for skewers with olives or canapés. You can also place small gravy boats in the center;
- sectors. They take a long dish and lay out individual types of sausage or meat on it in a sectorial manner. An important condition is that there must be many types of meat, at least 5;
- in rows. Several rows of sausages and meat are laid out on a long dish. They can be smooth or wavy.
Traditionally, sausage or cheese slices are placed on the table immediately, without waiting for guests to arrive. There should be several ready-made plates, because they are changed as they are full. Salads are placed around the cuts.
Products for cutting
To diversify the assorted meats, you can take any meat product (balyk, brisket, boiled pork, etc.), the only note is that the products are not too fatty, that is, it is better not to use fat-containing types in such a dish.
For the cheese composition, you can use any type of product from blue cheese to regular processed cheese.
To make the sausage and cheese slices look bright and beautiful, it is recommended to use other additional products in the form of decorations. For example the following:
- greenery;
- olives and olives;
- grape;
- tomato;
- cucumber;
- pomegranate seeds;
- nuts;
- bell pepper;
- figs;
- boiled eggs;
- various sauces;
- berry jams;
- boiled and raw vegetables;
- pickled vegetables;
You need to start slicing with sausages, because they retain their proper appearance longer.
Cold appetizers are served first on the festive table. It’s good if they evoke amazed sighs and admiration from the guests. Cold cuts are always popular, especially if they are intricately designed and consist of delicious delicacies:
- smoked meats;
- balyk;
- basturma;
- Ham;
- lard with a layer;
- language;
- chicken and turkey rolls.
The simplest option is to thinly slice all the ingredients of the dish and arrange the slices in a circle, but there is nothing special here.
Advice. To get perfect pieces, you need to use a thin, well-sharpened knife, or a slicer, a special device for slicing (slicer).
Festive serving of slices:
- Thinly slice all ingredients.
- Place half of the ham slices along the outer edge of the plate.
- Make the inner circle from a different type of meat.
- Roll each piece of the second half of the ham into a tube.
- Place in a circle at the junction of two varieties with the thin edge of the tube towards the outside and the wide edge towards the center of the plate. Garnish the dish with herbs and olives.
Another way is to lay out everything you have in a circle and make a meat rose in the center:
- Cut thin slices of meat.
- Roll the first slice into a tube. This is the middle.
- Place other pieces around it, folding the edges.
- Secure the bottom of the rose with toothpicks and make it stable.
- Pour the meat flower into the center of the plate and open the “petals” one by one.
Cheese plate - beautiful design ideas, assortment
Cheeses, unlike sausages, are best cut into thick slices, approximately 1.5-2 mm. To make the cuttings look more beautiful, you should use different varieties that differ in taste and color.
What ingredients will be needed?
To make a cheese plate look attractive, you need to use at least 5 varieties. Those listed in the table are perfect:
Name | Peculiarities | Recommendations |
Mozzarella | Italian cheese is soft and round in shape. | Before laying it out on a plate, it is frozen, then the round parts are cut off so that the shape becomes square, and only then it is cut. |
Gouda | Dutch cheese has a mild flavor that hardens over time. | If there are no hard cheese lovers, choose fresh products. |
Emmental | Swiss cheese with a spicy taste | It slices perfectly, has an interesting shade, and is suitable for creating cheese compositions. |
Parmesan | Italian cheese with a firm structure, slightly spicy | It crumbles when cut. Therefore, it must first be frozen and cut into thick slices, about 3 mm wide. |
Roquefort | French blue cheese with mold has a unique spicy taste and aroma | A classic ingredient on a cheese plate. |
Step-by-step cutting and layout
Cheeses are cut with sharp knives with a thin blade. If working with frozen foods is difficult, you can warm up the blade a little on gas. Each type of cheese must be cut with a clean knife, otherwise the flavors will mix. The main rule of a cheese plate is that the products are laid out from mild to savory varieties.
Instructions for compilation:
- First, the ingredients are prepared and cut.
- Next, take a flat plate and first lay out the tender varieties around a large circle. If there is enough product, the slices should be placed close to each other.
- Give up a little space and lay out the next layer. Cheeses should not be close to each other, otherwise their flavors and aromas will mix.
- The layers are repeated as many times as there are types of cheese prepared. Each subsequent layer is smaller than the previous one.
- Place greens or a gravy boat in the center of the plate.
- Cover the plate with cling film so that the food does not dry out and put it in the refrigerator.
- 20 minutes before serving, remove the cheese plate from the refrigerator and remove the film. During this time, the plate should remain at room temperature so that the cheeses release their aroma.
Serving rules, decoration
Fruits, berries, and nuts are used as decorations. They can be placed between layers, diluting the color scheme, and also preventing the products from touching. Cheese plates are served mainly towards the end of the feast. As for drinks, they go well with wine.
Decoration of cheese slices
A cheese plate is usually formed from several types and varieties of cheese. And each type of cheese requires a special approach.
For hard cheeses, you need to use a massive and sharp knife.
To cut blue cheeses, you will need a special device with a thin line so as not to damage the mold.
Soft cheeses are cut into triangles right before serving so that the pieces do not have time to lose their shape.
When cutting cheese perfectly, you can always see the edge, middle and crust of each variety.
You can also cut the cheeses into slices, thin flexible layers or cubes.
Very simple and convenient, diced cheese, string on skewers along with olives, cherry tomatoes or grapes and place on lettuce leaves.
A cheese plate can be decorated with delicate flowers made from rolled up slices, filled tubes, carved figures or balls made from soft creamy varieties.
When designing, consider the combination of the selected cheeses with other products:
- For Brie or Camembert cheese, add a sauce pan with honey in the center of the plate and dried fruit, especially dates and figs.
- Garnish blue cheeses with pear slices and grapes
- For cream cheese, add persimmons and berries
- Hard cheeses, sprinkle with cashews, pine nuts and walnuts
- Some cheeses go well with red fish
When decorating a cheese plate, don’t forget to decorate the cheeses with crackers, herbs, fruits, vegetables and improvise with sauces.
Sausage slices and vegetable decorations
Sliced sausage with vegetables is an ideal option for a festive table. But you should follow the composition rules, since juicy vegetables can spoil the taste of sausages.
What ingredients will be needed?
To create you will need:
- several varieties of sausage (smoked, boiled, hunting sausages);
- several types of meat (smoked, dried);
- cucumbers;
- carrot;
- cherry tomatoes (do not use large varieties of tomatoes, as they are too juicy).
Step-by-step cutting and layout
Sausage and meat are cut into thin slices. Hunting sausages need to be cut lengthwise, dividing them into 2-3 parts. The meat is also cut into slices (if required, it is pre-frozen). Cucumbers and carrots are cut into ovals (at an angle, like smoked sausage). Cherry tomatoes only need to be washed, they are not cut.
Instructions:
- Take a round or oval dish.
- The first layer is a hard sausage, for example smoked.
- Next, lay out a layer of meat.
- Then again sausage, replaced by meat.
- Vegetables will complete the composition. They are laid out in a circle in the center of the plate. You can raise the center a little to make the cut more voluminous.
Beautiful sliced sausage and cheese - Finally, the slice is framed with cherry tomatoes.
Serving rules, decoration
Like a cheese plate, after slicing, the charcuterie board should be covered with cling film and refrigerated. 15-20 minutes before serving, take it out and keep it at room temperature without film. Cherry tomato decorations are perfect. But you can also use olives or herbs.
How to make a butterfly from sausage?
Surprisingly delicate and truly beautiful composition. A great way to give your holiday table a spring mood and increase your guests' appetite.
To decorate the sausage butterfly, you can use cranberries, pomegranate seeds, olives, and green onions.
Grilled meat plate
Ingredients:
- semi-smoked sausages;
- smoked brisket;
- boiled smoked sausage;
- baked duck meat;
- homemade sausage in edible film.
All ingredients are cut into slices approximately 5-6 mm thick. Then they need to be fried on a grill pan without oil.
Preparation of cutting is carried out according to the instructions:
- Take a round plate or wooden board. A small gravy boat is placed in the center.
- The fried components are laid out on separate plates, on which newspaper or napkins are laid to absorb excess fat.
- After cooling, the ingredients are laid out on a plate in triangular islands.
You can complement the composition with fried rye bread. Small slices are fried on the same grill pan so that they absorb the meat odors. The bread is placed on a plate in one layer between the meat islands.
Meat plate with beer
The classic ingredients of a beer plate are:
- jamon;
- bacon;
- smoked sausages;
- basturma.
Instructions for compilation:
- All components of the meat plate are thinly sliced.
- Meat products are laid out on a plate in parts (not in layers). The listed ingredients cannot be layered, since each of them is too fragrant. In layers, components will interrupt each other.
- Decorate with greens. Parsley is great for a beer bowl.
Combined cheese and meat plate
Sliced sausage and cheese can be beautifully complemented with meat (dried or smoked).
Ingredients:
- hard cheeses (2-3 varieties);
- sausages or meat (4-5 varieties);
- greens, olives and cherry tomatoes for decoration.
Creation instructions:
- The ingredients are cut into slices of approximately equal width.
- Take an oval plate and visually divide it into 3 approximately identical triangles.
- Place a gravy boat in the center of the plate or lay out several olives.
- Cheeses are placed in the first triangle, meat in the second, and sausage in the third.
- The plate is framed with cherry tomatoes and olives and decorated with herbs.
When preparing a combined cut, do not mix layers of sausages, cheeses and meats. They are fragrant enough to spoil the taste of each other if they touch for a long time.
Ideal cutting: how to cut cheese and sausage beautifully
Don't know how to cut sausage, cheese and bread evenly? There's nothing wrong with that! Use an electric slicer. The main thing is to determine the power of the equipment and choose the safest unit.
Of course, a slicer is not an essential item in the kitchen, like a refrigerator or stove, but with its help you can always make perfectly even cuts: thick slices of medium thickness or thin, almost translucent slices. You can put a lot of things under the electric knife: cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, bananas, citrus fruits, lettuce leaves, soft or semi-hard cheese, ham, boiled meat, sausage, bread. The main thing is to peel the food and remove the seeds from them before slicing. The only foods you should avoid putting under the slicer are frozen foods, raw meat, jamón, and fruits with hard seeds like avocados or apricots. Who needs power?
Before you start choosing a slicer, decide how often you will use it. If you need the device to quickly chop sausage and bread for sandwiches in the morning or to make beautiful slices on holidays, an inexpensive 100 W device is quite suitable for you.
If you plan to regularly cut various products in large quantities (including for canning), choose a unit whose productivity is much greater and whose power ranges from 150-200 W.
Whatever electric slicer you choose, before you go to the store, see if you can find a place for it in your kitchen, because constantly taking a unit weighing 3-5 kg out of the cabinet is quite inconvenient. By the way, if the worktop is not too large, you can choose a model with a folding body.
Decoration on skewers
Canapés are small sandwiches made from different ingredients. They can be a decoration for the main cut, as well as make up their own.
To prepare you will need:
- hard cheese;
- lettuce leaves;
- ham;
- olives.
Instructions:
- The sausage is cut into round thin slices.
- Lettuce leaves are thoroughly washed and dried. They need to remove the hard root part.
- The cheese is cut into squares so that they are approximately the same size as the olives.
- Take the sausage, place a leaf of lettuce on top of it, then fold everything in half so that the greens are inside.
- Take a skewer, thread it through one corner of the assembled sausage, then put an olive and cheese on it, and then thread it through the other corner of the sausage.
- The assembled canapés are placed on a plate, preferably not flat, so that they can be leaned against.
Instead of olives, you can use cherry tomatoes; you need to choose the smallest ones.
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree cutting fits the New Year's table.
To create you will need:
- sausage 2 types;
- hard cheese;
- tomatoes (drops);
- parsley.
Instructions:
- A round plate is decorated with foil. You need to work carefully so that it does not tear, but completely envelops the bottom. You can tuck the ends down.
- We need to make the top of the tree. The tomato is cut in half. The corners of a slice of cheese are cut off to the same size, then they are folded and cut in half. These will be the details for the star on the Christmas tree.
- A star is laid out with cheese triangles, in the center of which half a tomato is placed.
- Next they are laid out in layers: cheese, cut into 2-2.5 cm squares, tomatoes, small bouquets of parsley, sausage. Then cheese, tomatoes, parsley and sausage are laid out again. This continues until the ingredients run out.
- To make the tree even, it should be trimmed with ordinary scissors.
The bottom of the slice can be decorated with olives or herbs.
Meat bouquet of sausage and cheese
Slicing sausage and cheese looks beautiful on the table if it is not layered, but made in certain shapes and figures.
To compile you will need:
- cucumbers;
- Cherry tomatoes;
- lettuce leaves;
- smoked sausage;
- smoked chicken or other meat;
- hard cheeses.
Instructions:
- Cucumbers are cut into thin long slices, square in cross section.
- Hard roots are removed from lettuce leaves;
- Sausage, meat and cheese are cut into regular thin slices and rolled into envelopes.
- You need to take an elongated flat plate, on one side of which place a handful of cucumbers - they will be the stem of the bouquet.
- On the other side of the plate, lettuce leaves are laid out in a dense bunch. The base can be tied with thread in one layer so that the bouquet is not destroyed during assembly, but it is also possible to pull out the lettuce leaves for consumption.
- Changing colors and ingredients, place sausage, cheese, meat, and whole tomatoes in the spaces between the lettuce leaves.
- The bouquet is voluminous, so it should be covered with a plastic bag.
- Before serving, remove the bag and allow the slices a little time (about 10-15 minutes) to warm up at room temperature.
There is no need to additionally decorate this bouquet.
Sausage basket
To create a basket, take a deep plate with perpendicular edges protruding upward by about 3-4 cm. You should also prepare a beautiful pen. It can be made from cardboard or braided from twigs.
Instructions:
- The ingredients are cut and put into tubes.
- Divide the space in the plate into sections, which are filled with different types of sausages.
- Between the varieties you can put lettuce or cucumbers.
- The final step is to insert the handle along both sides of the plate. Naturally, such a basket cannot be carried by the handle; it is only a decorative element.
The basket can be covered with a bag and put in the refrigerator. The slices should be served warm, so remove them from the refrigerator approximately 15-20 minutes before serving.
Sausage and cheese cake for the festive table
Cutting sausage and cheese beautifully into a cake is not as difficult as it might seem.
To create you will need:
- hard varieties of cheese (2-3);
- soft sausages or meat (2-3 varieties);
- cucumbers, tomatoes;
- olives or cherry tomatoes for decoration.
Instructions:
- The cheeses are cut into thick slices of 3-4 cm. They will be the backbone of the cake, so they must be strong.
- Sausages are cut into thin slices so that they can be collected in a bag;
- Vegetables are cut with special devices in the shape of a spiral;
- You need to take any flat dish and lay the cheeses horizontally in the central part.
- Sausages and tomatoes are placed on the sides of the cheeses, changing colors;
- The top part is decorated with spiral-cut cucumbers, olives and cherry tomatoes.
It is better to prepare such cuts immediately before serving. It contains many ingredients that release moisture (tomatoes, some types of meat). Therefore, keeping it in the refrigerator can ruin the dish.
How to make a rose from sausage?
You can make such an amazingly beautiful edible rose with your own hands. To do this, you need to cut the boiled sausage into thin slices. Place the sausage circles on top of each other in the form of a path, and then roll them into a tight tube. Secure the sausage tube with a green onion feather, cut off the lower part (to stabilize the composition) and straighten the petals.
The finished sausage rose can become an independent dish or a decoration for cold cuts, salads and holiday sandwiches.
Useful tips and tricks
To ensure that the cutting turns out beautiful and can be done quickly, follow the recommendations:
- When sausage or meat crumbles, they need to be placed in the freezer for a while. Once they harden, they will be easier to cut;
- for cutting, use only a flat board - this makes it easier to maintain the desired shape for the slices;
- if cheese plates are cut frequently, buy a special device called a “roque cutter.” It is intended for different types of cheese (not only Roquefort) and allows you to accurately cut even those products that crumble a lot;
- It is better to add vegetables, fruits or berries to the dish immediately before serving. By secreting juice, they can spoil the taste of sausage or cheese.
There are many simple and straightforward ways to cut sausage and cheese. With their help, you can set the table beautifully and make it rich. With complex product display forms, it is recommended to practice several days before the event to hone your skills.
How to make a hedgehog from sausage?
The kids will gobble up each sausage hedgehog with great pleasure, and most importantly, with appetite, and perhaps more than one. To make a sausage hedgehog, you will need toothpicks or skewers for canapés.
Decorate the finished hedgehog with pomegranate seeds or cranberries.