Recipe: Memphis Sausage and Cheese Plate

You can find these plates in just about every Memphis barbecue joint worth its smoke.

The Sausage and Cheese Plate appetizer from Memphis icon, Huey’s. (Credit: Toby Sells) 

Unlock Tennessee legend status at your next gathering with the easiest appetizer that’s perfect for fall. (Yes, it’s totally appropriate to bring this to a Thanksgiving potluck or football watch party).

A sausage and cheese plate is a staple of authentic Memphis cuisine and get-togethers. It is so simple. But bring it and be amazed at how quickly it disappears.

It’s a blend of smoky kielbasa sausage, creamy cheese cubes, and jarred peperoncini and dill pickle spears for tang and a tad bit of heat. Saltines go on the side as does a few dipping sauces, like barbecue sauce, honey mustard, ranch, or whatever you like. (Few rules govern the dip game here.) It’s all sprinkled with your favorite dry rub but preferably one meant for pork, the Memphis way.

Arrange it all on a plate or cutting board and call it anything you like Charcuterie board. Grazing board. Snack plate. But in Memphis, it’s a sausage and cheese plate. Just always has been.

You can find these plates in just about every Memphis barbecue joint worth its smoke. Huey’s (a Memphis staple) offers up a simple and delicious sausage and cheese plate eveyr day. Rendezvous’ “special plate” adds sliced ham to the mix. You can, too.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 pounds kielbasa sausage

• 8 ounces cubed cheese, or sliced from blocks (favorites are cheddar, Colby jack, or pepper jack)

• 1 jar of whole peproncini peppers

• dill pickles in spears or chunks

• saltine crackers

• dips like barbecue sauce, honey mustard, ranch, or your favorite

• dry rub (preferably for pork)