Serve Cheese And Charcuterie On Rimmed Baking Sheets

A cheese, charcuterie, or even vesper board can function as a snack, meal, or cocktail party sustenance. The contents of the board are obviously the most important part, but the board itself can greatly influence your snacking experience. For easy snack board-eating enjoyment, grab a rimmed baking sheet.

You may want to accuse me of overthinking this—after all, any flat, clean board will work as a cheese and meat serving vessel, but a rimmed baking sheet excels, particularly if you are lazy, clumsy, or both. (I could also argue that it’s my job to overthink the details of eating, as long as we’re having an imaginary argument in my head.)

Think about it: a flat, rimless surface has to be transported with care, lest the items resting on it slide off. This happened to me once with a ramekin of pickled cucumbers, and I would hate for it to happen to you. The constraining nature of the rimmed baking sheet means things won’t slide off, but it also means you don’t have to use as many little bowls for olives, nuts, or jams, as your olives cannot roll, your nuts cannot tumble, and your jam cannot dribble off of the side of the board. Just nestle everything in together and go; the rim will keep everything in place. (It also makes it much easier to enjoy cheese and charcuterie in bed, if you are into that kind of thing.)

Baking sheets are also much easier to clean than traditional cheese and charcuterie boards, most of which are made of slate, marble, or wood, and have to be hand washed with care. Actually, I have one that can’t even be “washed.” It has to be delicately wiped with a damp cloth. (I hate it.) But a baking sheet can be tossed in the dishwasher, or left soaking—an impossibility with wood—for as long as you see fit. This may not seem like such a huge advantage now, but it makes a world of difference during drunken cocktail party clean up. And, if you happen to be a quitter who left some cheese behind, all you have to do is throw some plastic wrap over the whole tray, pop it in the fridge, and finish it at a later date.