How to put together a Charcuterie Board

Happy holidays, everyone! ‘Tis the season for fancier plated dishes and festive nights. I hope that you’ve all been well in the last month since I’ve previously posted. Holiday shopping and craziness, can you relate?! I’ve definitely let this season of giving get the best of me. I’ve been looking up how I can help the community aside from my purchases to local businesses. I’m in the process of putting together goodies for a women’s transition home here on O’ahu, which I am excited to gather. But the days are counting down! I need to get a move on it. So pardon me for the lack of posts since November.

Anyway, this past weekend I put together a Charcuterie board for the first time! When I have the craving for Charcuterie, I just go for the meats, cheese, and crackers. I could honestly go without the fruits, nuts, and spreads. I can’t believe I actually did my research on how to put together a proper Charcuterie board – it’s kind of funny to think about it! I looked up pictures on Pinterest, and some inspiration photos on Instagram as well. I also watched a video from Shay Mitchell on Instagram of how she puts together her Charcuterie boards for her events. I’m not claiming to be an expert in Charcuterie, but this is what I learned from putting together a board of my own!

Here’s some tips to buying ingredients for your next Charcuterie Board:

• Know how many people you plan on feeding. This is an appetizer not a main dish, so it’s okay to not fill a whole table like you see on an influencer’s post.

• Get your board (cutting board, pan, baking sheet pan, etc.) before buying anything else! It’s important to know the size of the board so that you don’t over-buy or under-buy ingredients.

• Go to your local grocery store or Whole Foods and check out their deli counter. I used to buy the pre-packaged options for cured meats and cheeses but they’ll slice the meats fresh at the deli counter (by the pound). This results in better quality of meat, and it’ll be cheaper. I’ve noticed that the freshly cut slices last a lot longer than the pre-packaged options after it’s been opened.

• For the cheeses, I like to look at the discounted bin first. At Whole Foods there’s a bin in the cheese section labeled “Less than $5”, with decently sized pieces of cheese (about palm-sized). I like this option better because I get to try something new, without the fear of spending a lot for something I won’t like. This also allows for variety on your Charcuterie board while saving money! Then when you find a cheese that you enjoy, you can go for the bigger and more expensive piece. You want to get one very soft cheese, a semi-soft cheese, and a hard cheese for your board. I’m not a cheese connoisseur but I just feel the cheese when I buy it (LOL).

• Crackers! I personally like to go for artesianal crackers with my Charcuterie, but I know that spending $7 on one box of crackers is absolute nonsense. But, a hack to saving a couple dollars is to make your own crostini with a loaf of bread! A freshly made baguette goes for about $3, and you’ll get a lot of crostini out of one loaf. It takes a bit of time to cut and toast the bread in the oven, but it’ll be worth it!

• Buy pre-packaged trail mixes instead of buying one bag of each item. The main star of the board, in my opinion, are the meat and cheeses. The fruits and nuts are just accompaniments to balance out the salty and creaminess of the other items. If the self-serve “by the pound” containers were still available, I would turn to that instead. For this last board that I made, I chose a trail mix that I wouldn’t mind snacking on the leftovers throughout the week.

• Fresh fruit: Buy one apple or pear to serve as a refreshing crispness to the grazing. The sweetness and slight acidity from the fruit will be a good break from the saltiness from the meats and cheeses. If you slice the fruit in thin pieces (0.25″ – 0.5″ thick), then one fruit is enough. Grapes work well too! You can cut up one bunch of grapes and add it to where the board needs some color.

Putting together an “aesthetically pleasing” Charcuterie Board

Okay, this section might be a little “extra”.. But hear me out! If you’re making this board for a crowd, presentation counts. You’ll wow the other attendees with something that only took you a couple of minutes to throw together. I thought it would take me a while to put together my board with a lot of rearranging, but I’m very happy with how it turned out on my first try. It was funny to pull some art composition concepts to put together food, but I’m guessing that’s what the chefs do when they create a dish! Here is how I put it together:

• Corners/Edges: When filling a space, I started off with the corners with objects that I knew would fit perfectly in the corner. In the board that I created, I used the narrow ends of the thinly sliced pears in the corners and fanned them out to fill up space. In one corner I positioned the wedge of brie towards the middle of the board to draw the attention to the other items (like an arrow), and a little bunch of grapes on the other end for a pop of color.

• Cheese: I placed the cheeses away from each other so that you can graze through the board (if you were to grab items in a circle) with a little bit of everything. I’ve seen on some boards that people will place knives to allow people to cut slices of cheese themselves. I personally would rather cut the semi-soft and hard cheese in advance so that the wedge can be shared equally and people don’t cut all wonky, but do add a knife for the soft cheese.

• Meats: If I have three types of cheeses, I like to have three types of meat. In that board I used Genoa Salami, Prosciutto di Parma (bottom of the board), and Jamón (to the left of the brie). For prosciutto and thin ribbon-like meats, I suggest that you cut them in half. Not only does this give you more pieces to work with, you get a more balanced meat-cracker-cheese bite when you graze through the board. After you’ve cut the piece in half, bundle it loosely and place around the cheeses. For the salami/round meats, fold them in half, and then in half again. Looking back at the picture, I would’ve liked to make the Prosciutto have a bit more movement throughout the board towards the middle.

• In the clear ramekin I have a bit of fig jam to go with the brie. If you’ve never had it, YOU HAVE TO TRY IT! It’s the perfect balance of salty, creamy, and sweet. Because my ramekin is not a natural shape like the other ingredients are, it’ll catch the viewer’s eye and stand out. I wish I placed it using “Rule of Thirds”, but I’ll be sure to incorporate that in the next board I make. Another thing you could add is a little honey pot with a honey stick.

• Pops of color: Where I felt the board needed a pop of color, I put the bunches of grapes and trail mix. I think that the separation of colors made for an eye-appealing board as a whole. If you have other ingredients that add a pop of color like sun-dried tomatoes, olives, fresh vegetables, other dried fruits, etc., feel free to add those in as well!

This was such a fun experience! I look forward to making more Charcuterie boards in the future. It’ll be a great space for people to gather around at future parties and start a conversation. What are your favorite ingredients to add to a Charcuterie board? Until next time…