If there’s one thing my family loves, it’s a good cheese and Charcuterie Board. The meats, the honey and spreads, the various cheeses and amazing gluten free crackers, and of course, all the little components that are scattered on the board and seem like an afterthought but pair oh so well with other ingredients.
We’ve made cheese boards for every possible occasion you can imagine. I’ve posted every single one of them on my instagram story because frankly, they’re too beautiful to not show everyone.
Step one: Ingredients.
A good Cheese and Charcuterie Board is actually just a bunch of ingredients on a plate. The magic comes in the combinations. So really, you have to have the ingredients on hand. Every board is different. Ingredients and components can be interchangeable. While a great addition, my family rarely includes a honeycomb. And because we are currently in quarantine, we didn’t buy marcona almonds, or have a wide variety of olives and cornichons to include. I used what we had on hand, plus cheese and meats we bought specifically for this. With every cheese board I make, however, I have these staples ingredients: cheeses, meats, produce, spreads, crackers, and what I like to call, mini components (stuff like chocolate covered nuts, olives, etc.)
For the cheese, I typically use 3-4 varieties: one very hard cheese, two creamy cheeses, and one cheese dip (I make a whipped honey goat cheese with roasted red pepper flakes). On this board we used Manchego, Brie, Raclette, and Humboldt fog (that’s three soft cheeses, but each one is different in it’s own way, and through making lots of cheese boards, my family learned that we all generally like these more than a harder cheese or a stinkier cheese). We didn’t have goat cheese this particular day, so I didn’t include the whipped honey goat cheese that otherwise I usually include.
For the meats, I use three different types: a spicy salami, a milder salami, and a prosciutto. The variety is nice. You get spice and a punch of flavor when you want it, salt when you want it, or a milder savory taste if that’s more your style.
Spreads: I highly recommend three different spreads: honey, savory, and sweet. For the honey, you can use classic clover honey, local crystalized honey, or whatever you have in the house (or if you’re feeling fancy, I am a HUGE fan of honey comb). For the savory, you can use onion jam, red pepper jam, or whatever else you like, but for this board, I went with a honey and two sweet spreads: fig jam and apricot preserves.
Crackers: for this article, I didn’t focus on the crackers, I wanted you to have a solid board foundation before straying from the important topic at hand. Really, with a good cheese board, you really only need one good cracker. For this one, we used Nut Thins, Corn Thins, Onesto Sea Salt crackers, and Schar brand toasted gluten free baguette slices.
Produce: always include berries and cucumbers on your cheese board. Sometimes, we use apples as well! For this one, I used mini cucumbers, blackberries and raspberries. Some other good options are strawberries, very thin apple slices, bell pepper slices, grapes, pomegranate seeds, clementine segments, or even more vegetables (like raw cauliflower and snap peas, if you want to mix in crudite with your charcuterie and cheese board as well).
Mini Components: Here is where it gets fun. You can do whatever you want! Add what you have in your pantry! Apple chips, almonds, dried fruits, nuts, chocolate covered literally anything, or even candied citrus rinds. For this one, we used the rest of a bar variety of olives we had in the fridge from the day before. It was simple, easy, and was a great addition for some salt.
Step Two: Add the cheeses and pick your board
Picking your board is really important because of the sizing. Too small, and you won’t have room for all of your ingredients. Too large, and you will risk having a lot of blank space and nothing to fill it with.
After picking your board, lay down your soft cheeses. Here’s my raclette, humboldt fog, and brie:
Step Three: Salamis
After your cheese is serving as the foundation on the board, add your meats. I learned this salami river trick from @magsmeals on TikTok. Basically, I fold the salami in half and then in quarters, the place them alternating side by side
Step Four: Prosciutto and Hard Cheeses
Then, I like to roll/fold my prosciutto to make it easy to pick up and place it on a cracker. For the hard cheeses, I slice it and place it in an alternating pattern for aesthetic purposes and for ease. It’s so easy to pick up a slice, break the rind off, and place it on a cracker! I also add the bowl for the spreads at this point, so it’s easier to block out the rest of the board and save space for everything else.
Step Five: The spreads
AT this point, add your spreads to the bowls. This is obviously the easiest step. There’s no way to mess it up, really, because the bowls have already been laid down. Put the honey in the most central location, because usually, honey is the most used spread in our house. Then, add the other spreads to the other bowls and move on to step six.
Step Six: Produce
Cut the mini cucumbers, and wash your berries. If you are using other produce, prepare it how you wish. Find an empty place to put the fruits and vegetables, and try to space them out. It’s more practical to space out the produce so that when people gather around the board, they can all enjoy the produce components from different areas. A well spaced out cheese board is a successful cheese board.
Step Seven: Mini components
This is my favorite step. Fill in all the blank areas with all of your mini components! In this case, we only used mixed and seasoned olives, but I LOVE Brookstone dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, dried oranges, Trader Joe’s truffle marcona almonds, and plain kalamata olives are my absolute favorite.
So, get creative. Switch up you mini components, produces, cheeses, spread, and everything else. Have fun, cater your Cheese and Charcuterie Board to what YOU like. Enjoy!!