Bewitching Halloween Cheese & Charcuterie Board

Tempting treats are lurking inside this frightfully delicious grazing board! Costumes might be optional, but cheese is not, and this all-American board comes loaded with our best offerings, plus charcuterie, accompaniments and spiced pumpkin shortbread for the occasion. Vanessa Tilaka builds each one at the Agnes cheese counter in Pasadena, where the cheddar is cut to order. Set it out at dusk and let the ghouls help themselves. Made in exclusive collaboration with Agnes Restaurant & Cheesery in Pasadena, this board arrives beautifully arranged by hand and ready to set out and enjoy. 

To get the full flavor of the cheese, bring the board out about an hour before your guests. Leave the cheese in its wrapping as it warms, since unwrapped cheese oxidizes and the flavor dulls. Serve the charcuterie at room temperature or slightly chilled. Includes serving board, 2 bamboo tongs, 1 bamboo cheese knife and 4 bamboo forks.

Small Board (Serves 2-4) Includes:

• Point Reyes Toma (3 oz)
  In Italian, toma means a wheel of cheese made by the farmer herself. This semi-hard cow’s milk cheese is set with vegetarian rennet and aged 90 days under a wax rind. It is creamy and buttery, with a grassy tang on the finish.
• Prairie Breeze (3 oz)
  Milton Creamery makes this cow’s milk cheddar in southern Iowa with vegetarian rennet and no added color. Aged at least nine months, it is sweeter than a typical cheddar and carries hints of pineapple and almond. The crumb is full of tyrosine crystals and the paste turns fudgy on the palate.
• Rosette de Lyon (3 oz)
  A coarse-ground pork salami cured with organic red wine, garlic and cracked black peppercorns. It arrives sliced thin, firm and richly marbled, with a long savory finish that goes well with cornichons and a bloomy-rind cheese.
• Olive Oil & Sel Gris Flatbread Bites (4 oz)
  Baked in Sonoma County from organic flour, water and salt, on a dough that rises slowly and ferments like bread. Light, crisp and finished with grey sea salt.
• Dried Fruit (4 oz)
  Peaches, prunes, plums, apricots, pears and papaya. Serve as a sweet contrast to the salt of the cheese and charcuterie.
• Sweet & Salty Pecans (2 oz)
  Handmade in small batches from USA-grown pecans, finished with cane sugar and kosher salt. Set out alongside the cheeses for a crunchy counterpoint.
• Seasonal Preserve (2 oz)
  The selection rotates with the season. It may be an apple and walnut jam from Favols, who have made preserves in southwest France since 1966. It may be an elderberry preserve from Beth’s Farm Kitchen in New York’s Hudson Valley, or an apricot jam built on Riesling and vanilla. Spread it over the cheese or the flatbread.
• Grilled Marinated Olives (2 oz)
  Hand-harvested on Greece’s Halkidiki Peninsula and flame-grilled, these Mt. Athos green olives are marinated in the Agnes kitchen with olive oil, orange peel and rosemary. Smoky and citrusy, and a counterweight to the cheese.
• Pickles (1 oz)
  Cornichons, peppadews and piparra peppers, the slender mild Basque pepper. Sharp, sweet and bright in turn, they sit beside the charcuterie to cut the richness.
• Dark Chocolate-Covered Raisins (1.4 oz)
  Set these out at the end, once the cheese is gone.
• Pumpkin Spice Cookies (5 oz)
  Buttery shortbread, spiced for the season.

Approx. 1 lb. 14 oz. total; 6 oz. cheese. Ships chilled.

Medium Board (Serves 6-8) Includes:

• Merry Goat Round (6 oz)
  FireFly Farms makes this goat’s milk round in Maryland from milk gathered within thirty miles of the creamery. The soft bloomy rind is edible at any stage of ripening and carries the fullest flavor, while the paste inside stays clean, lactic and very creamy. Included whole rather than cut.
• Point Reyes Toma (4 oz)
• Prairie Breeze (4 oz)
• Rosette de Lyon (2 oz)
• Fennel Salami (2 oz)
  A coarse-ground salami, hand-trimmed and hand-tied, seasoned with fennel seed, fennel pollen, fresh garlic and black pepper. The slow, cool ferment keeps the acidity low and the pork forward. Serve with a firm sheep’s or cow’s milk cheese.
• Olive Oil & Sel Gris Flatbread Bites (8 oz)
• Dried Fruit (4 oz)
• Sweet & Salty Pecans (2 oz)
• Seasonal Preserve (6 oz)
• Grilled Marinated Olives (4 oz)
• Pickles (2 oz)
• Dark Chocolate-Covered Raisins (3 oz)
• Pumpkin Spice Cookies (5 oz)

Approx. 3 lb. 4 oz. total; 14 oz. cheese. Ships chilled.

Large Board (Serves 10-12) Includes:

• Merry Goat Round (6 oz)
• Hook’s Butterkase (4 oz)
  Inspired by the German butterkase, this sheep’s milk cheese is made in Mineral Point, Wisconsin and aged in the curing caves Tony and Julie Hook have run since 1976. Springy, smooth and pale gold from a touch of annatto, it is mild enough to serve as an introduction to sheep’s milk.
• Point Reyes Toma (4 oz)
• Prairie Breeze (4 oz)
• Rosette de Lyon (3 oz)
• Fennel Salami (3 oz)
• Chorizo (3 oz)
  This Spanish-style chorizo is slow-cured with sweet paprika, garlic, black pepper and a splash of sherry. The paprika gives it a deep red color and a savory sweetness, the sherry keeps it bright, and the texture stays firm but tender. Natural alongside a firm Spanish cheese.
• Olive Oil & Sel Gris Flatbread Bites (8 oz)
• Dried Fruit (8 oz)
• Sweet & Salty Pecans (2 oz)
• Seasonal Preserve (6 oz)
• Grilled Marinated Olives (4 oz)
• Pickles (2 oz)
• Dark Chocolate-Covered Raisins (3 oz)
• Pumpkin Spice Cookies (5 oz)
• Pecan Toffee Brittle (weight TBC)
  Made in the Agnes kitchen, where butter toffee and 70% dark chocolate are poured over a cracker base, then scattered with pecans and finished with Maldon salt.

Approx. 4 lb. 1 oz. total; 1 lb. 2 oz. cheese. Ships chilled.

We may occasionally need to make substitutions with similar items of equal quality.