Are your Thanksgiving guests arriving early (and hungry, even though your meal is still hours away)?
When it comes to apps, even with a meal as big as Thanksgiving dinner coming later in the day, nothing says “no muss, no fuss” like a charcuterie board. With quality ingredients, you can throw together an impressive starter in a matter of minutes. Local charcuterie and cheese expert Dave Bailey (Ever seen his page-long menu devoted to the board at Bridge?) reveals how to dictate your guests’ wants before they even know it. Secret No. 1: Start with lots of cheeses in contrasting textures and flavors. Repeat with meat. Then fill it in with a bounty of extra bites. 
Dave Bailey’s charcuterie board recommendations:
The Cheese
The first: “Gjetost. It’s creamy, slightly sweet and slightly nutty. It looks like dark peanut butter. If you plane it off really thin, you can roll it and make all kinds of fun shapes.”
The second: “I’d do a triple cream type – anything past a brie or Camembert that’s really soft and almost turns to liquid at room temperature like a St. André. You get those pungent notes. You could do the same with a strong blue, like a Gorgonzola, as long as it’s a really good one.”
“I love the Jasper Hill. It’s aged by the sea, so you have the sea salt, oceanic mineral-y back tones to it, but you also have this rich, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cheddar thing going on with a tangy finish. It’s a hard cheese and breaks really well, like little mineral rocks.”
The Meat
With something dry, like a dried, cured sausage, you can have that be your spicy as well.”
“Then you want something fatty like a duck breast. Because all the skin is still on, it melts in your mouth; you get that buttery creaminess – something to add richness to the palate.”
“And I always love something freshly smoky and sliced really thin like the dry-rubbed smoked NY strip.”
The Rest
Tomato jam makes for a wonderful savory bite.
“If you’re going to do a strong blue cheese, take a drop of honey and put it on that bite; it sets it off.”
“There aren’t many dried fruits I’d pass on, but stay away from tropical fruit. I like ’em when they’re not totally dried. I also like fresh figs, if you can get them. If you forgo the fruit, get a really good mix of olives.”
Spicy Mixed nuts: “Mix together any types of nuts like almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pecans and pepitas.” “I always prefer a fresh bread or flatbread. You want something you can warm up, so you can change up the texture of the bread.”
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This article appears in November 2012.