Artisanal fine food producer, DukesHill shares its guide to creating the ultimate edible centrepiece grazing platter.

Step 1: Selecting the ingredients

Start by selecting your heroes on the platter - be it meat, fish or cheese. DukesHill hand-produce and select products that represent the best examples, ensuring only the finest ingredients are featured on their online shop. Seek food with a talking point - ingredients that have been carefully chosen for their traditional handmade methods and provenance, perhaps they have won coveted awards or you've found a newly launched product.

Meat platter: Create an assortment of cured meats, such as a variety of hams, pastrami, lomo, bresaola and porchetta for a spectrum of flavours and textures. Add acidity and tanginess from pickled vegetables, such as cornichons, pickled shallots, olives and capers.

Cheese platter: A classic cheese board showcases a range of characters including a blue cheese, a soft cheese such as the glorious Baron Bigod brie as an oozy crowd-pleaser to dazzle your guests, a semi-hard cheese, such as Lord London, a cheddar, and a goat's cheese such as Ragstone. Serve it in contrasting ways - whole, wedges, cubes and slices to show the colour and texture difference between the rind and core.

For the perfect counterbalance, incorporate elements of sweetness to balance the savoury flavours. Add fresh fruits like grapes, figs and strawberries, along with damson fruit cheese.

Fish platter: Look for different types of smoked fish, such as hot smoked salmon, gravlax, smoked trout, eel and kippers. A couple of pates work well, in addition to seafood such as Morecambe Bay potted shrimps, cooked prawns, mussels and oysters. 

To accompany seafood, choose lemon or grapefruit wedges, cream cheese, horseradish sauce, slices of buttered brown bread and crackers. Bitter leaves such as chicory work well.

For a beautiful pop of colour, put some cauliflower florets in a jug and pour over boiling water. Add half a teaspoon of turmeric before stirring it together. Leave for 4 minutes so the cauliflower softens slightly and takes on the vivid hue. 

Tip 2: Arranging the ingredients

Begin with the right size serving board or platter so that you can fill it entirely with ingredients. Place small bowls on the platter and fill them with patés, spreads, honey or other bowl-food.

Variety is key. Arrange produce by alternating colours, shapes and textures. Use a variety of heights and depths to add dimension to the board. Stack cheese slices, fold cured meats and mound fruits to create layers that draw the eye in and invite tastings.

The final garnishes. Add micro herbs, edible flowers, citrus zest, seeds and spices. These accents add pops of colour and soften any edges.

Tip 3. Serving

Ensure the cheese and meat are served at room temperature to allow the flavours to open up. Your seafood platter will need to be served straight from the fridge.

Provide napkins and serving utensils - perhaps small plates if necessary - so guests are comfortable to dive in. If you plan to serve cheese as part of a meal, a typical recommendation is to provide 80g per person. 

You may wish to label cheeses so guests know what to expect. 

Tip 4: Create a charcuterie rose

 Simply fold each slice of cured meat over the rim of a wine glass, laying down half each side of the rim. Continue working your way around the glass until there's no hole in the centre of the glass. Now, tip the contents of the glass onto your board. At this point, continue to manipulate the 'petals' - fanning them out so they look more realistic.

Grazing platter ingredients from DukesHill 

DukesHill St George's Ham (1.2kg / 4.5kg) - £40/ £101.60  / DukesHill Charcuterie Selection Pack £25 

To create DukesHill's delectable St George's ham, each leg of outdoor-bred English pork is immersed for a week in their own Wiltshire brine recipe which gives it a moist texture. Unlike other brining processes, a touch of unrefined brown sugar is added, imparting a subtly sweet flavour through the ham. After being steam cooked for 12 hours, the hams are inspected, hand-skinned and trimmed by an expert quality manager. They are then baked in a glaze of spiced oranges, cinnamon, mace and cloves. 

DukesHill's range of continental style air dried meats include Italian influenced sliced porchetta (175g) and Lomo (150g) - pork loin air dried with paprika to Spanish tradition. It also includes Bresaola (80g), produced from the finest beef leg cuts that have been sea-salted and allowed to rest, and Pastrami (175g), made from lean British beef and spices.

DukesHill British Artisan Cheese Selection £27 / DukesHill Sliced Oak Smoked Salmon (200g) £12.50

A selection of the finest cheeses from the British Isles. Includes Baron Bigod (250g), Isle of Mull Cheddar (200g), Cote Hill Blue (170g), Ragstone (200g).

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High res images are available here credit Nick Hook.

Website: dukeshill.co.uk | Instagram: @dukeshill

PR Contact: For more information, images or samples please contact Harry Hook harry@rawfoodanddrinkpr.co.uk