How to Prepare a Perfect Charcuterie Board

What better way than a charcuterie board to entertain your guests with casual elegance and bring them conversing together whether they know each other or not? It’s an opportunity to showcase your creativity, while making it look effortless.  Your charcuterie board can be just as delicious as it is beautiful. And since you can assemble it ahead of time, you will have the opportunity to enjoy the party along with your guests, creating a lasting impression, new memories and perhaps even imparting some inspiration.

And there’s more to charcuterie boards, as I recently discovered. These can be a great team building activity. I ordered mine for exactly this purpose. My complete kit arrived overnight from a company local to the Bay Area called Peckish Boards. It had the most delightful array of foods and mini packages that were oh so cute! It had a variety of meats and cheeses. Every piece of fruit bursting with color and at the peak of freshness. And to top it all off, beautiful flowers for garnish. The board also came with convenient visual instructions for food placement. Highly recommended!

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun putting it all together. Here is a picture of the final product to give you an idea of what the board can look like.

Courtesy: Peckish Boards

So, how to prepare a charcuterie board on your own?

Start with high quality cheeses, meats, fruits, nuts, and other accoutrements, like crackers, honey, fruit jellies, olives and my personal favorite: Chocolate.

Here are some suggestions of what to include on your board to serve 2-4 people.

Cheeses

The rule of thumb is to work in odd numbers, so select at least 3 types of cheeses to start for this serving size. If you are creating a board for a larger crowd, you’ll want to select 5, 7, etc. types of cheeses in keeping with the odd number rule of thumb.

Make sure to include both hard and soft cheeses.

Start with arranging the cheeses as your anchor points around the board, grouping them together. Remember to pre-cut hard cheeses. Your guests are much likely to eat the cheese when it is cut. And, you can cut the pieces in an aesthetic way. One option is to cut the cheese into triangles. You can offset the slices against each other or you can alternate wide and pointed ends.

Suggestions for cheese: Smoked Gouda triangles, Manchego triangles, and French Truffle soft cheese

Meats

Next arrange the meats. Use premium fresh thinly sliced meats. Fan or fold them into accordion shapes. And line them up in ribbons alongside other foods. This is one place you can make your board look elegant yet effortless.

Suggestions for meat: Salami, Coppola, and Prosciutto

Fruit

Make sure that your fruit is at the peak of freshness: firm and bursting with flavor. Choose vibrant colors and strategically place them around the board using complementary colors. You’ll want to create that instant visual interest.

Suggestions: Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries, and Green Grapes

If you wish, you can also include dried fruit:

Suggestion: Dried Apricots

Nuts

If you are using nuts, try Pistachios in shell. It’s a flavorful nut and adds two colors to your board and easy to break apart. If you prefer to use other nuts such as walnuts, I would highly recommend using shelled walnuts. You’ll want to make it easy for your guests to enjoy.

Honey & Jellies

Having a miniature glass jars of honey or jellies add to your display beautifully. Don’t forget the little touches. For instance if you are using honey, include a mini size honey dipper as well.

Suggestions: wildflower, orange blossom or meadow foam honey.

Condiments

Mixed Olives in a small container. Make sure they are pitted and again use variety to bring out different colors, shapes and sizes.

Chocolates

Last but not least, my favorites: Chocolate. Again variety is key. You’ll want to appeal to different palates, so milk chocolate, dark chocolate, sweet and salty are definitely fine choices.

Suggestions: Dark chocolate covered grahams & Milk chocolate covered salted caramels.

Garnish

Garnishes are optional but highly recommended. For your garnish, use edible flowers to make this beautiful centerpiece one that truly impresses your guests.

Suggestion: Edible Flowers

 

Enjoy your masterpiece but don’t forgot to take a picture first!