How to serve your Thanksgiving cheeses

Every cheese below is in at least one of our Thanksgiving boxes. Find the ones in yours. The order they appear here is the order to set them out, mildest first, so the board tells your guests where to start.

Before anyone arrives

Take everything out of the refrigerator 20 minutes ahead. Cold cheese tastes like almost nothing, and the cheeseball in particular needs the time: cold, it crumbles; at room temperature, it spreads.

Give each brie its own knife. Put a spoonful of cranberry compote or fig jam beside the brie, sliced apple and pear beside the cheeseball, grapes and dried fruit down the middle, and crackers and torn bread around the outside. Allow three to five ounces of cheese per guest for an appetizer board:

• Thanksgiving Cheeseboard Classics (6 cheeses, 41 oz): serves 4 to 6
• Thanksgiving Entertainer (9 cheeses plus one, 61 oz before the bonus): serves 6 to 8
• Thanksgiving Host Hero (12 cheeses plus one, 76.2 oz before the bonus): serves 8 to 10, with cheese to spare for cooking

Cave-Aged Classic Brie: the centerpiece

Aged two weeks in our Austin cheese cave. Serve it whole and let people cut in.

Cranberry compote is the Thanksgiving pairing; fig
jam is the year-round one, and one customer swears by sweet pepper jelly. After that: sliced pear, grapes, dried fruit, walnuts, and crusty bread.

The rind is meant to be eaten. It is the part first-time brie eaters are most surprised by, and most come around to it.

Baked brie with cranberries: Bake 12 minutes at 350°F in a small dish, then spoon cranberry compote and toasted pecans over the top, with a baguette. The one warm thing on a cold board.

Truffle Brie: the second centerpiece

Our cave-aged brie with truffle folded through. Put it at the opposite end of the board from the Classic Brie, with sautéed mushrooms and fresh sage beside it, and the board has two anchors. Warm crusty bread and nothing else. Wrapped in puff pastry and baked at 400°F until golden, it is the centerpiece people photograph.

Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball: what goes first

Made once a year for this table. Rosemary crackers, apple slices, toasted baguette rounds. A drizzle of maple if the table skews sweet, whole-grain mustard if it does not.

It carries the shortest date in the box. Serve it on the day, or freeze it unopened; it keeps six months, and if you have two, the
second one is for December. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and let it sit out 20 minutes before serving.

Plain Chèvre: the cooking cheese

Clean and tangy, with nothing on it. It never has to see a board.
Whipped chèvre dip: whip the log with two tablespoons of
olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and a little hot honey, and top with toasted pumpkin seeds. In the potatoes: a third of the log stirred
into mashed potatoes at the end. In place of goat cheese:
substitute one for one, so the green bean dish, the stuffed dates, and the cheesecake all work.

Honee Pistachio Chèvre: the dessert course

Tangy under a sweet-and-salty pistachio crust. Serve last on the board, or on its own after the pie, with biscotti, dark cherries, sliced pear, and a spoon of cranberry compote or fig jam. The next morning it is a bagel schmear, and it belongs on waffles for the holiday brunch.

Balsamic Fig & Walnut Fromage: the holiday flavor

Sweet fig, toasted walnut, and aged balsamic. Rosemary crackers and crisp apple on the board, roasted squash or sweet potato beside it. On Friday: a sandwich with cranberry sauce and arugula, or a spoonful warmed into a pan sauce for whatever is left of the roast.

Tomato Herb Fromage: the savory middle

A Mediterranean herb crust around a sun-dried tomato center. Spread thick on a water cracker or warm flatbread and stop there; it carries a board on its own. The Friday flatbread: spread the fromage on a warm flatbread, top with roasted butternut squash and sage, and finish under the broiler. The ten-minute pasta: whisk half the wheel into three quarters of a cup of hot pasta water off the heat, then fold the pasta through.

Truffle Chèvre: the umami

Crostini with roasted mushrooms and a little thyme. Or take it off the board and into the kitchen: a third of the log stirred into mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, or risotto turns a side into the dish people ask about.

Pepper Jack: the firm one

Slice it thin for the board with a hearty cracker and cranberry relish, or with a sweet jam for the sweet-and-spicy bite. On Friday it is the grilled cheese: sourdough, pepper jack, a smear of leftover cranberry sauce.

Gruyère: the grating cheese

Nutty and sharp. On the board with fig jam, or apple and whole-grain mustard. It is the firmest cheese of the set and the one to grate: the mac and cheese bake (grated Gruyère and a little
smoked cheddar into a béchamel made with oat or soy milk, folded through pasta, breadcrumbs on top, 375°F until browned), a potato gratin, or French onion soup under the broiler.

Smoked Cheddar: the sharp one

Cold-smoked over mesquite. Serve on the board with green apple and spicy mustard. Grated into the mac and cheese or over the Friday scramble.

The leftover sandwich: sourdough, smoked cheddar, whatever
roast is left, cranberry sauce, pressed in a pan until the cheese gives.

The mystery cheese

If your box came with one, it is never a duplicate of a cheese already in your box. Its label tells you what it is; find it above and serve it there.

What to pour

• One bottle for the whole board: a dry sparkling wine.
  It handles the rind, the herbs, the heat and the honey without picking a side.
• The Thanksgiving classic: Beaujolais Nouveau, released
  the Thursday before the holiday, and light enough for the bries and the cheeseball.
• With the firm cheeses and the fig: a Zinfandel or a
  Pinot Noir, or a brown ale.
• With the pepper jack and the Tomato Herb: an off-dry
  Riesling, or a pilsner.
• With the Honee: Moscato with dessert.
• Without alcohol: sparkling cranberry with a rosemary
  sprig, or a dry sparkling apple.

Keeping it until the day

Everything keeps unopened in the refrigerator until Thanksgiving. The cheeseball, the fromages and the chèvres freeze for up to six months; the bries and the firm cheeses do not. Once opened, enjoy each cheese within five to seven days.

Perfect for

• The host with one dairy-free guest. One board for the
  whole table, and nobody eats a separate plate.
• The dairy-free guest brings the appetizer. It
  arrives cold-packed on the date you pick, and it travels.
• A table of skeptics. "The non-vegans could not tell" is
  the sentence our Thanksgiving reviewers write most.
• Friendsgiving, and the weekend after. The grilled
  cheese, the flatbread and the leftover sandwich are half the point.
• The cook. A chèvre for the potatoes, a firm cheese for
  the mac and cheese, a brie for the pastry.
• The family that orders it every year. Several already
  do.