Process/ Helpful Hints
The fun part about a charcuterie board is that there is no right or wrong way to make one. It all depends on personal preference, tastes, and occasions. To start, pick out your “board”. This can be wooden or otherwise, but size is important because you’ll 1) want to make sure you have enough for everyone and 2) not want lots of empty spaces to have to fill. Mine was raised around the edges, which helped prevent rolling or knocking items off.
Next, think about what items you’d like on your board. Generally, a broad list of what to add would include cheese, meat, savory snacks, sweet snacks, crunchy items, fresh fruits/ veggies, and dips or toppings. To narrow down this list, pick what textures to use and what flavors will complement each other!
To pick cheeses, use different textures, like soft and hard. For my soft cheeses, I chose brie and mozzarella. For hard, smoked cheddar and asiago! When choosing meats, I picked the ones most generally seen on a cheese board: prosciutto (salty), salami (tangy), and capicola (spicy and smoky). I used mine to make meat “roses”. Tip: When measuring how much to serve, typically 3-4 slices of meat per person should suffice!
When deciding on salty snacks, I chose to use club crackers and mixed nuts. The crackers are like the “vehicle” for the cheese and other dippable items on the board, and the nuts added nice variety and crunch. You could also use olives, pickles, or pretzels. I didn’t add a lot of sweet items, mostly just dark chocolate to go with my berries, because the pepper jellies added a bit of sweetness as well.
The nuts and crackers doubled over as crunchy items, but something else to add could be crusty bread (like French bread), pretzels, or even chips! For fresh produce, I decided on raspberries because of how yummy they taste with dark chocolate, blackberries for some color contrast, and cherry tomatoes to make skewers with the mozzarella and toothpicks.
Lastly, I picked my dips and toppings. I chose Red Pepper Jelly because it’s a classic, Southern Pecan Jalapeno to have a spicy and fun kick, and Candied Jalapenos for another “crunchy” texture and to mix it up a bit!
When assembling, go ahead and lay out the biggest items first. I started with my bowls (filled with jellies and jalapenos), and then my meat “roses”. Next, I placed my cheeses around my meat and bowls. Tip: Go ahead and cut some “starting” slices or pieces to lay around the cheeses so they are ready to eat!
Since the board was starting to fill up, I placed berries in piles around the other items, then filled in empty spaces with the mixed nuts. Lastly, I used a knife to roughly chop some large pieces of my chocolate bar, and placed them around the board, near the berries.
The most important tip to remember is that the flavors and textures are totally up to you! It’s a fun way to try new things and bring some personality and fun flavors to events. There is no set way to do it. Just have fun and be creative!
Cheese Board Ingredients:
Club Crackers (Can add or substitute crusty bread)
Bar Chocolate (I used dark, but any preference is fine)
Mixed Nuts
Blackberries
Raspberries
Prosciutto
Capicola
Salami
Cherry Tomatoes
Brie Wheel
Mozzarella Pearls
Smoked Cheddar
Asiago
Lauri Jo’s Southern Pecan Jalapeno Pepper Jelly
Long Toothpicks
Small Bowls for serving dippable items
Serving Utensils
