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Simple Charcuterie Board Ideas – Looking for some inspiration to up your appetizer game? Here’s the perfect appetizer for happy hour or a holiday party. We’ll show you all the helpful tips you need to make a beautiful charcuterie board.
A traditional charcuterie board is made with a variety of meats and cheeses, both fresh and dried fruit, seasonal produce, nuts, pickles, crostini, and spreads.
How To Make A Charcuterie Board
Step 1: Gather Your Supplies
To create the perfect cheese board, start with a flat surface, which can be any large plate or serving platter. Make sure you have essential tools like cheese knives, small bowls, plastic wrap, and airtight containers to ensure that your cheeses and perishable items stay fresh.
Step 2: Curate Your Cheese Selection
Building the best board begins with your choice of cheeses. Opt for a variety of cheeses, including both soft cheeses like creamy goat cheese, semi-hard cheeses like a rich blue cheese, and hard cheeses like Parmigiano-reggiano. Slice these into appealing cheese wedges to display on your cheese platter.
Step 3: Select Your Meats
No charcuterie platter is complete without a selection of cured meats. Consider your guests’ favorite meats and include a variety of textures and flavors. Arrange slices of meat alongside your cheeses.
Sliced beef tenderloin, filet mignon, or ribeye steak is always a hit at parties.
Step 4: Add Fresh and Dried Fruits
Enhance your board’s appeal with the addition of fresh fruit, such as apple slices and seasonal fruits. Dried fruit also complements the cheeses and meats perfectly. Present these in small bowls for easy access.
Step 5: Incorporate Additional Flavors
Now, it’s time to get creative with your ideas. Elevate your offerings with items like olives, olive tapenade, and fresh herbs.
Step 6: Assemble with Care
Arrange all the components ahead of time, ensuring a pleasing display of different colors, textures, and flavors. Smaller items like olives and chocolates can fill any gaps to create an impressive appetizer.
Step 7: Don’t Forget the Bread
Slice a baguette or various types of bread, such as crostini, to serve alongside your meats and cheeses. Place the slices of bread either on your board or in a basket nearby.
Step 8: Keep It Fresh
To maintain the freshness of your charcuterie board, cover it with plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Alternatively, store the perishable items in airtight containers until your gathering begins.
Step 9: Label Your Selection
For an added touch of elegance, label your cheeses and meats with little note cards. This is a great way to introduce your guests to the different types of cheese and charcuterie.
Step 10: Enjoy the Feast!
The best part is sharing your beautiful creation with your family and friends. Serve it at your next gathering, and watch as it becomes a centerpiece that everyone will love.
What To Put On It
There are no hard and fast rules for what to put on it.
In the simplest terms, you need 3 things: a savory sliced meat, a delicious cheese, and a bread or a cracker. That’s what we do around here for our Friday Steak Night Board.
A traditional charcuterie board is going to have a variety of meats and cheeses, nuts and olives, sauces and spreads, something sweet to balance the savory flavors, and some bread or crackers to put it all on.
ome inspiration to up your appetizer game? Here’s the perfect appetizer for happy hour or a holiday party. We’ll show you all the helpful tips you need to make a beautiful charcuterie board.
Ingredient Ideas
For large gatherings, choose 3 meats, 3 cheeses, 2 fruits, and a variety of extras. You don’t need everything listed. Choose your favorites. And only serve what is truly tasty.
- charcuterie meats and dry-cured sausages
- salami – Salted, thinly sliced, cured pork sausage. There are many different kinds of salami. Genoa, and soppressata are two of our favorites. Both are mild in flavor.
- capicola – (capocollo, coppa) – Hot or mild, thinly sliced, cured pork. We love to pair hot capicola with the milder soppressata, giving contrast in heat.
- prosciutto – Salted, thinly sliced, dry-cured ham.
- cheeses – There are a variety of cheeses available at your local grocery store. Use the freshest, best cheeses you can find.
- hard cheeses – Manchego, gruyere, parmigiano-reggiano.
- soft cheeses – Brie, camembert, havarti.
- fresh produce
- fresh fruit – Red Anjou pear (mild, soft), honey crisp apple (bright, crisp), red grapes, pomegranate seeds, and other seasonal produce.
- dried fruit – Cranberries, apricots.
- dark chocolate – Taza Mexican-Style Chocolate is the perfect addition.
- nuts and seeds – Roasted pumpkin seeds, salted almonds, marcona almonds, pistachios, candied pecans, or a tasty nut mix like Sahale Snacks Pomegranate Pistachios Glazed Mix. They always go fast around here.
- olives, pickles, artichokes – Mediterranean mixed olives, blue cheese olives, baby gherkins, marinated artichokes.
- condiments
- jams and compotes – Cranberry sauce, peach or bourbon peach jam
- butters – apple butter, pumpkin butter, compound butter.
- horseradish sauce – Can’t go wrong with Woeber’s Sandwich Pal Horseradish Sauce.
- olive oil – Mix a little extra virgin olive oil with a pinch of Italian Seasoning and some crushed garlic for a tasty sauce to dip bread into.
- roasted garlic
- bread and crackers – Thin slices of baguette, ciabatta, toasted crostini, or your favorite crackers. Sonoma Creamery’s Gluten-Free Pepper Jack Crisps are always a hit.
How To Arrange It
Make it pretty by artfully arranging all the delicious meats and cheeses, and such to make a beautiful board for your guests. The goal is to arrange it so that each ingredient is easily reached.
- Cheeses. Start by arranging the cheeses first, as they will provide a place to lean the meats, which tend to unfold unless they have something to nestle up against.
- Meats. Next step is to add the meats. Fold some meats and lay them pushed up next to the cheeses, so that they will remain folded. Arrange other meats by fanning them out as they lay flat.
- Bowls. Next, arrange the filled dipping bowls and ramekins.
- Fill Empty Spaces. Fill in the empty spaces with fruit and nuts and such.
- Utensils. Arrange the serving utensils by placing them with each item for which they will be used. Make sure to include a spoon for each dip or sauce, a little fork for olives, and small serving tongs here and there so that meat can be easily grabbed.
Charcuterie Board Ideas
Large Board
- genoa salami, hot capicola, soppressata
- manchego, gruyere cheeses
- dried apricots
- marcona almonds
- mixed olives, blue cheese olives
- roasted red paquillo peppers
- marinated artichokes
- wafer crackers
Long Rectangular Board
- genoa salami, hot capicola
- manchego, guyere
- olives
- salted almonds
- dried apricots
Small Nibble Board
- salami folded and shaped as a rose.
- sliced hot and mild salami
- manchego cheese
- sweet and spicy pecans
Round Board
- salami and hot capicola
- Delallo Provolini Antipasti
- extra virgin olive oil and Italian seasoning
- manchego and gruyere
- sliced baguette
