The first time I had a brotzeit platter was in a tent at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. But, as soon as the first delicious morsels of food passed into my gullet I was hooked.
The French call this delicious snack a chacuterie plate, which just doesn’t fit a platter of meats, cheeses, bratwurst and even sometimes a whole chicken placed on a large wooden cutting board.
But, regardless of what you call it this hearty dish is sure to fill you up as either a main course or an excellent in between meal snack.
WHAT IS IN A BROTZEIT PLATTER?
A brotzeit platter is a combination of cheeses, spreads and meats arranged on a wooden platter. For your meats you can use anything from chicken to turkey to bratwurst and everything in between.
By keeping it simple you can put together a quick and tasty brotzeit platter in 10 minutes. To see what food we used in our platter check out the end of this post.
For a basic brotzeit platter you will need the following:
- A wooden cutting board
- 3 types of meats: ham, chicken, turkey, capicola, proscuitto, salami
- 2 types of cheeses: pepperjack, swiss, cheddar, havarti, emmantaler, etc
- 3 types of spreads: honey mustard, jellies, siracha, dijon mustard, etc
- Crackers
*Note you can include more types of meats, cheeses and spreads if desired. The numbers above reflect a 2 person serving size.
ADD YOUR MEATS
When making a brotzeit platter you want to start with either your meats or cheeses, not your spreads. I prefer to start with the meat, as cheeses can sweat if left at room temperature for too long and cutting the meats usually requires the most space on the cutting board.
We choose three meats for this platter: salami, capicola and hard deer salami. Slice your meats as desired and place them on one side of your cutting board.
ADD YOUR CHEESE
Next, add your cheeses. I like to go with a variety and used pepperjack and a harder emmantaler cheese with a hint of coffee flavor. The pepperjack had a nice kick to it, and the espresso Bellavitano was a bit softer and buttery on the palette. Again, you can add more varieties of cheese if desired.
Cut the cheese in to small squares and arrange or pile on the platter accordingly. I like to separate the cheese and meats with the spreads, so I put my cheese on the other side of the cutting board. I also made sure to leave room for the crackers.
ADD YOUR SPREADS
In your left open platter space add your spreads. I went with a Jack Daniel’s mustard, a siracha mustard and homemade jalapeño jelly over cream cheese.
Just glob your jellies or spreads on to the platter, making sure to leave enough room between them so they don’t accidentally get mixed together when you are digging in later.
ADD CRACKERS AND ENJOY
Finally, add some crackers. We used a multigrain cracker and a buttery club cracker as well. Arrange a few crackers on the open space of your platter below your cheese.
Now it’s time to dig in. Mix and match your meats, cheeses and spreads as you desire. My favorite part is always trying to find the best combination of the goodies I’ve laid out.
Also, to really make your brotzeit platter just a bit more authentic serve with a nice, dark german beer.
Our Brotzeit Ingredients List:
- Salami
- Deer Salami Sticks
- Hot Capicolla
- Peperjack Cheese
- Espresso Bellavitano Reserve Cheese
- Jack Daniel’s Mustard
- Siracha Mustard
- Cream Cheese and Jalepeno Jelly
- Club Crackers
- Multigrain Club Crackers