I absolutely love a good charcuterie board. They are perfect for any gathering, Holiday, or my weekly viewing party of the Bachelor with my friends. You can customize them to any Holiday, and the combinations you can make are endless! Though you can always switch things up, there are some staples to every board that you start with and build upon. There’s many ways to do this, I’m just going to give you one example and of how I learned to do things, that anyone can do! I know anyone can do it, because when I first started putting cheese and crackers on a plate it wasn’t the most appealing, I also didn’t have a plan or how much to buy of each item. After doing this a quite a few times I have a much better idea of the combinations and how to make it look great!

Lets gather the supplies

        Get your supplies! My go to store is usually Trader Joes, but honestly you can go anywhere. Our other local grocery store has a huge variety of meats and cheeses and I do like to go there to get different things that TJ’s doesn’t have when building my charcuterie board. But of this particulat board I’m going to show you exactly what I got to make it. Trader Joes is good because they sell a lot of things together. For example you can get 3 kinds of grapes in one container, and also 3 kinds of meat in one package. This saves you money, adds variety to your board, and cuts down on waste if you don’t finish everything. 

        You can go as big or as small as you like! This particular board was for two people so I kept it relatively small. For a large party I’d go bigger, I’d have more variety of cheese, and at least double the meat and fruit. Alright, now lets built THIS board…..  

3 types of cheese- Extra sharp cheddar cheese, Brie, Creamy Tuscano cheese soaked in syrah (this last one is a new favorite!)           

3 types of meat- I just bought the one package to make it simple. It has Salami, Prosciutto, and Capocollo. 

Fruit- Grapes (package of red, green, and purple), green apple, dried apricots.

Grains- I chose 4 types of a “grain”. When making my decisions I tried to get different shapes to give my board some depth and variety. I got the square raisin rosemary crisps, round shaped pita bite crackers, long cheese sticks, and I also got round shaped savory thin crackers. I chose them specifically because they are gluten free, and I think a gluten free option is always a good one to have on any charcuterie board. 

Nuts- Trader Joes has a great selection of nuts! I didn’t pick up any new ones and just used what I had on hand at home. I used Thai Lime & Chili, but the option here are endless.

Sweets- I added dark chocolate peanut butter cups (because why not! ) and dark chocolate covered almonds. We can add that one in the nut category also? Doesn’t matter, either way they belonged on this board!

Extras- Fresh herbs and seasonal “decor”. I used fresh rosemary and a mini pumpkin. On the brie I added rasberry jam. 

time to build your charcuterie board

step 1

        First thing we do is add the cheese. Your cheese is going to act as your anchor for the board. leave the Brie whole (I actually just cut a small piece of of a larger piece of brie for this board because I didn’t need the whole thing), and cube the other hard cheeses. I like to cube them so I can pile them high! Always thinking about height and dimension.

step 2

        Next you add the meat. You fold the round meats half, and then half again creating a triangle. Place them next to each other in a row. but rotate the direction that you place them. Roll the round meats and try to stand them up straight. Height, height, height! You can always roll the round meats if you don’t have long ones like prosciutto. I just did have prosciutto for this charcuterie board, and I didn’t want to roll them all, I wanted some variation. When you put the meat on the board it looks nice when you place them in a line. I once read the term “meat river” and  thats exactly what I think now. If you doing a large board, you can do multiple rivers! Or just one river in the middle and a couple piles on the side if you have smaller round pieces of meat like pepperoni, or soppressata. 

step 3

        Next add the fruit! Leave the grapes on the vines so they stay together on the board better and can be piled up. I also slice the apple thin, and push one side out so it looks zig zaggy. Its easier to pull a piece off easier this way as well. I disperse the fruit in a few different spots on the board as seen in the picture. 

step 4

        Were getting close to done! So the board is starting to fill up at this point, and it’s starting to look obvious where we can add in our grains and crackers.  I tried my best to stand up long crackers, and round ones I tried to place in a line. Really trying to take up as much room as we can and fill up the empty spaces on this charcuterie board with the crackers. 

step 5 and 6

        Step 5 is to add the nuts and chocolate in the last empty places! I had a large space left and decided to add a pumpkin to take up room, plus it fit the fall season! I also added the rasberry jam on top of the brie at this point.

        Step 6 is just adding finishing touches. Once all of your ingredients are on the board, add in some fresh herbs around the board to make it look festive and give it some extra color!

        

And thats it! It’s that simple. I hope a few things I mentioned here are helpful, and will give you some help and confidence to go make your own professionally looking charcuterie board! ☺️