Have you been trying to think of the perfect dish to bring to your next holiday party? Why not surprise all your friends when you bring a pickle board!
Here are a few tips for making your pickle board:
It’s 5 p.m. on a chilly night in December. You’re in the office bathroom primping for your friend’s annual holiday party, and you haven’t eaten a thing, hoping to save your appetite for the endless morsels these festive gatherings aptly provide. After a few glasses of Champagne and a bit of mingling, you make a beeline for the spread. You scan the appetizer table—the various dips, assorted olives and nuts—and finally arrive at the token cheese board: dependable, creamy, lac-tastic. You shove a few cubes of cheddar and Gouda into your face, wash it down with a cracker or two, dust the crumbs off your party outfit and are momentarily satisfied.
But who says this is how things should be? How festive can a water cracker really get? This year, instead of weighing your guests down with the heavy, bland cheese assortments of yore, try a fresher option. Something gloriously crunchy, spicy, sweet and sour: Pickle boards are here to save your holiday, and they’re the only way you should be kicking off any seasonal fete.
We’re not just talking a few big dills and a jar of half-sours here. Think a cornucopia of complex flavors, from sweet red pickled beets to crunchy, spiced carrots to a few smears of mustard and a pile of salty, fatty serrano ham, all laid out in perfect order, waiting to be devoured by eager guests. This plethora of pickles is within reach, which is why we’ve asked an expert to help get us there.
Jacob Hadjigeorgis, pickle connoisseur and owner of Jacob’s Pickles, a pickle-focused comfort food restaurant in Manhattan, preaches the importance of these briny snacks. “I found when opening the restaurant that guests, consumers and the public in general have a tremendous passion for pickles,” he says.
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