​​The Sweet Touch That Makes Your Charcuterie Board Stand Out

While it might not be the thing to order in a restaurant for fear of being formulaic, boring, or worse: prepackaged; charcuterie boards continue to get more elaborate in the home entertaining realm. Willing hosts comb through markets to find the most interesting combinations of firm and soft cheeses, along with a dizzying array of accompaniments to offer their guests, all arranged artfully enough to tempt a Dutch master on sturdy wooden boards.

Despite the fact that there is much advice to be had on creating the perfect cheese board (don't forget the golden rule for filling it), from anchoring it with larger items to choosing pieces that range from salty to sweet, not much heed is given to the texture of those sweet morsels. Instead of upgrading your board by throwing those last bits of leftover honey in a saucer, opt for honey's unprocessed and more evocative iteration in an artful and toothsome piece of raw honeycomb. Honeycomb not only provides a bit of relief from all of the palate covering richness of the various cheeses on your board, it also lightens and rounds out each cheese by amplifying its inherently sweet notes.

You may be wondering if honeycomb is edible — and it absolutely is. Most of the honey bought in stores is pasteurized and filtered (which removes unappetizing aspects like pollen), while raw honey is simply harvested from the comb itself. But the comb, constructed in the bee's ingenious hexagonal structures and made of wax, is indeed edible. In fact, so is the pollen, honey, and royal jelly it contains. Commercially available raw honey often filters out bits of honeycomb for consistency and packaging purposes, but raw honeycomb certainly makes for a satisfying and elevated addition to your next cheese board. The honeycomb also serves as a noticeable textural diversion from the "headliners" on the board, much like other charcuterie treasures like nuts or dried fruits. It also serves as a punctuation between each cheese, providing some welcome space between, say, an earthy brie and a piquant variety of cheddar.

Even better, honeycomb doesn't spoil and can last forever when stored in a cool, airtight container. While it is true that regular honey doesn't spoil either, due to its low concentration of water and high levels of sugar and acid, it does crystallize. This can make it less appealing and require some doctoring with warm water or the microwave to bring it back to a smooth, pourable consistency. Honeycomb, on the other hand, inherently contains wax and crystallized bits of honey, as well as gooey bits, that make an unexpected but pleasing contrast to a variety of creamy and soft cheeses.