Recipes & Food · 7 min read

The Flannel-and-Cider Snack Board (Plus Two Cider Drinks Worth Making)

There's a specific kind of October evening around here. Somebody's got a fire going, everybody's wearing a flannel, and the plan is nothing more ambitious than sitting outside until your hands get cold.

That evening deserves food. It does not deserve you spending two hours in the kitchen.

So here's the board we put together when people are coming over and we want it to look like we tried without actually having tried. It takes about fifteen minutes and it works for four people or fourteen.

The formula (memorize this and you never need a recipe again)

Every good board has five categories. Hit all five and it works. Skip one and something feels missing even if nobody can name it.

• Something creamy. A soft cheese. Brie, goat cheese, a whipped honey ricotta, a good herbed spread. This is the thing people keep coming back to.
• Something sharp. An aged cheddar, a smoked gouda, a blue if your crowd is into it. Sharp cuts through the creamy.
• Something salty and cured. Salami, prosciutto, summer sausage — and in this part of Wisconsin, a good local summer sausage is never the wrong answer.
• Something crunchy. Crackers, a sliced baguette, pretzel rods, spiced nuts, apple chips.
• Something sweet and something acidic. This is the category people skip and it's the most important one. Sliced apples, grapes, dried cherries, fig jam, honey, a little bowl of whole-grain mustard, some pickles or pickled onions. The acid resets your palate so the whole board keeps tasting good after the fourth bite instead of going flat.

The fall version, specifically

Here's how that formula shows up in October.

Baked brie in the center with a spoonful of apple butter and a scatter of toasted pecans over the top. Fifteen minutes at 350, and it'll hold at the table for an hour.

A wedge of sharp Wisconsin cheddar, cut into rough chunks rather than neat slices — chunks look more generous and people actually take them.

Summer sausage, sliced thin and fanned. Salami folded into little ribbons so it has height.

Sliced apples, and use Cortlands. This is the one place variety genuinely matters, because Cortland browns dramatically slower than almost anything else. You can slice them twenty minutes ahead and they'll still look good. (If you're using anything else, toss the slices with a little lemon juice or salt water first.)

Dried cranberries, a small bowl of honey with a dipper, whole-grain mustard, a few cornichons. Crackers and a sliced baguette around the outside edge, and a handful of cinnamon-spiced pecans tucked into the gaps.

The assembly order that makes it look professional

Big things first, gaps last.

Put your bowls down first — honey, mustard, jam — because they're the hardest to fit in later. Then the cheeses, spread out rather than clustered. Then the meats, folded and piled with some height to them. Then the fruit in loose piles. Then crackers fanned around the edges. Then, at the very end, fill every remaining gap with nuts and dried fruit.

Nothing in a straight line and nothing in a single layer. Height is what makes a board look abundant. A flat board looks sparse even when there's plenty of food on it.

Add a sprig of rosemary or a couple of small sage leaves at the end. Costs nothing, takes four seconds, and it's the thing that makes people say it looks nice.

Hot mulled cider (the real version)

Serves about 8.

Half gallon of apple cider, 4 cinnamon sticks, 6 whole cloves, 4 allspice berries, 2 star anise pods, and an orange sliced into rounds.

Everything into a pot. Bring it just to a simmer — never a boil, which turns the spices bitter and cooks the fresh apple flavor right out. Hold it at a bare simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, then strain.

If you're using a slow cooker, put everything on low for two hours and leave it there on warm all evening. Put the ladle right in the pot and let people serve themselves.

The upgrade: a strip of orange peel and a tablespoon of brown sugar per quart. Small change, noticeably better.

Bourbon cider for the grown-ups

Per mug: 6 ounces of the hot mulled cider above, 1.5 ounces of bourbon, a small squeeze of lemon, and a cinnamon stick to stir with.

Add the bourbon after you take the cider off the heat, not while it's simmering — otherwise you're just boiling off the good part. Garnish with an apple slice on the rim if you're showing off.

For a cold version: cold cider, bourbon, a splash of lemon, over ice, topped with ginger beer. That one's better than it has any right to be.

Come snack with us

On weekends, the Eats and Treats window is open with a limited selection of adult beverages, plus pizza, mini donuts, caramel apples, and the rest of the fall kitchen menu.

Wear the flannel. It's not required, but you'll feel left out.

The farm is open daily 10am to 6pm through October 31 (the Eats and Treats window is weekends only). Admission is $10 weekdays, $15 weekends, kids 2 and under always free. Plan your visit →