Guide to making the perfect charcuterie board
What Is Charcuterie?
Charcuterie, in simple terms, is a meat and cheese board. It is an arrangement of cured, smoked, or cooked meat, and of course a variety of cheeses. However, with increasing popularity, this appetizer-serving board has evolved to many possible variations of food: fruits, olives, an assortment of nuts, breads, crackers, dips, and even a range of desserts. Arranging them all together not only pleases the eye, it somehow makes everything taste better. And to start off, you first need to plan.
Make a Plan
Be it weddings or dinner parties, planning ahead will give you an advantage to prepare a delicious platter for your guests, and for you—compliments. Before beginning with the ingredients, you first need to figure out an estimated number of guests that’ll be attending your event. The more guests, the larger the size of the board and obviously the more food you’ll need to purchase.
If you plan on serving a main course after the appetizer, make sure not to overfeed your guests. However, when it comes to food, it is better to overestimate.
List Ingredients
Preparing a large charcuterie board can be overwhelming with so many options to choose from, especially for weddings. To make it less daunting, categorize your ingredients that complement but contrast with each other.
After planning how much food to buy, list out the ingredients you want on the board. You can include six different varieties of cheeses and meats, and the same or more amount of everything else. However, it’s the extras that need determining for food pairings—in other words, which items go well together. Aim for a picturesque board with an array of colors, various types of textures, tastes, shapes, and sizes.
Some examples of extras include:
- Pickled Snacks – From cornichons or gherkins to a variety of olives, jalapeños, tomatoes, and pickled onions, it adds a sweet, salty, and tangy touch to your appetizers.
- Dips, Spreads and Syrups – Cheese, spinach, guacamole, hummus, salsa, artichoke, and many other dips and spreads are some of the healthy options that you can choose to make your board look colorful. You can also include honey, maple syrup, chocolate or strawberry syrup, and many more.
- Assortment of Fruits and Nuts – These can include grapes, fresh berries, sliced apples, dried fruits, dates, cherries, roasted cashews, almonds, pistachios, and so on.
- Crunchies – Breads, breadsticks, garlic breads, crackers, biscuits, cookies, fresh vegetables, and lots more.
These are just a few examples of the extras you can put up on the board along with meat and cheese. There’s no limit, so don’t overthink it. Charcuterie boards are the perfect way to experiment with different combinations of flavors, and it’ll also let your guests choose their favorite.
Building the Board
The Board
The number of guests will determine your board. If it is a wedding event or you’re hosting a large dinner party, you can use one large board or several smaller ones. Boards with a raised edge are a good idea so that your food doesn't fall off and can be carried easily from one place to another.
Use Small Bowls
You can use a number of small ramekins or bowls for your dips, spreads, or syrups or for small-sized snacks, pickles, roasted nuts, olives, dried fruits, and so on.
Label Your Food
There may be guests who are lactose-intolerant or have allergies toward certain food. Therefore, it is a good idea to label the items on a small piece of paper or card and place it strategically beside the food.
Use Toothpicks
In this time of social-distancing, it is best to provide toothpicks for the guests to pick and dip their food; once they are done, they can discard them to avoid any unnecessary spread of germs.
Meats and Cheese
After the bowls have been placed, you can start adding meat and cheese. Slice them up thinly or serve them cubed; that is up to you to decide. Don’t forget to place a set of serving knives so your guests can help themselves.
Breads and Crackers
After the meat and cheese, layer the breads, crackers, cookies, biscuits, and any other munchies you want on the board.
Fruits and Vegetables
Place fruits in one row and vegetables in another. Fresh and well preserved fruits like cherries, berries, grapes, and melons go well with salty meat and also look colorful on the board.
Fill In Blank Spaces and Garnish
After everything has been placed, look for blank spots around your board and try to fill them in with more meat, cheese, fruits, or crackers. Finally, garnish your picturesque board with fresh herbs, and you’re done!
Whatever snacks and appetizers you offer, make sure they are sliced or cubed so it is convenient for your guests to pick, dip and eat. In addition, if you are decorating more than one board, try to keep the styles similar and build your boards as identical as possible to each other. Though it is not strictly necessary—if one looks good, the others will look good too.
A Balanced Experience
Your charcuterie board will integrate all the sweet, salty, savory, and spicy elements to provide a balanced and sensual experience to your guests’ palate. Besides this, you can also experiment with making different types of boards where the components are either sweet and salty or savory and spicy. For instance, a chocolate board on Valentine’s Day or for anniversary parties with various types of chocolates, cakes, no-bake desserts, combined with fruits, nuts, and raisins or whatever you choose to contrast the elements with.
Once you are done decorating and garnishing your charcuterie board, you can serve it with wine, cocktails or fizzy drinks of your choice—though wine always goes well with meat and cheese.
If it becomes overwhelming, you can always prepare your charcuterie board ahead of time, cover the board with cling wrap, and put it in your refrigerator. However, some foods are best served at room temperature such as breads and crackers so they don’t dry out or become soggy. Therefore, when you take out your board from the fridge, let it come to room temperature, then add the bread and crackers before serving and enjoy!
