How Much Cheese You Should Have Per Person For A Cheese Board

Cheese boards may be the perfect appetizer. Not only does an array of cheese, fruits, nuts, and crackers (or your accompaniments of choice) provide an attractive addition to your buffet table, guests can pick and choose which elements to try and which to skip. Plus, they're a built-in conversation starter around which cheese someone likes best, or whether they've tried the blue cheese with that luscious apricot jam.

But this ideal hors d'oeuvre can quickly go south if your guests go back for a refill only to find a selection of broken crackers, rejected grapes — and no more cheese. To avoid this embarrassing situation, you'll want to ensure you have the right amount of cheese for each guest: 1 to 1 ½ ounces per guest if your cheese board is serving as an appetizer; slightly more if it's the star of the show. Err on the side of excess. As Shelburne Farms puts it, "Leftover cheese is not necessarily a bad thing!" (Just make sure you're storing your cheese correctly, in the case of any extras.)

To help you visualize the suggested amount of cheese for your party, a standard block of grocery store cheddar cheese is 8 ounces. So that block of cheddar would be the correct amount of cheese for between five and eight people. Of course, you're going to want to serve more than a single variety on your cheese board, with a general rule of thumb being around four to five cheeses, focusing on different tastes, textures, and milk origins (goat, sheep, and cow being the most common). Sample the variety of unique Trader Joe's cheeses — from savory to sweet — or hit up your local cheese shop.

An ounce per person may not sound like a lot of cheese, but keep in mind that your board will be filled out with other items, too. While a cheese board differs from a charcuterie board in its emphasis on cheese over meat, many principles for building a better charcuterie board can apply to cheese boards as well. Focus on providing variety across the board. Beyond the cheese itself, try offering some interesting cracker and bread choices (Look for different shapes, grains, and textures); fruits and jams your guests may not have encountered before, like hard-to-find apple cultivars or locally produced jelly; and a balance of flavors, like sweet, salty, and sour. No matter how you design your board, the conversation — and the cheese — will be flowing.