How to Build the Best Charcuterie Board

My ideal night is sitting outside with a glass of wine with a giant charcuterie board by me and I just sit there and snack all night. Anyone want to join??

These boards have an art form to them like no other and I definitely am not the best but I have perfected them to a point where everyone comes to me for help!

The trick is doing everything in order (and having enough variety of GOOD choices)

Step 1: Choose your board. I like larger boards because I’m usually around a lot of people when I do this and I have a hard time cutting things out that I wanted on there if the board was too small. 

Step 2: Set out all your ingredients you’re going to use. Buy whatever you want and lay it out in front of you (not on the board) so you can separate the different types of things you have. I like having a couple different meats, cheeses, salty things like crackers or nuts, any spreads you want, something fruitier like grapes (even though it’s not in my picture), or even some dark chocolate!

Step 3: Put nuts and spreads in dishes and place those on the board first. You want to start with your biggest items and build around them. If you have just one thing in a bowl, place it in the middle. The more you add, the more creative you’ll have to get for placing them.

Step 4: Roll each meat differently and place half of it around the board in various spots. By doing half of it, you’ll ensure that you have enough space for everything else you want and you can fill in gaps that you need. I like to roll them differently based on the meat type because it adds variety to the board (rolling, folding, placing down regularly, cutting in different shapes/sizes, etc.)

Step 5: Cut and place half the cheese by the meat I layer on top of what is already on the board (or close to). So my cheese go next and I try put them either next to a meat on the board or slightly away if I want to fill crackers between it. Again, since you’re only placing half the cheese you can always go back to add more.

Step 6: Add half the crackers/chips/bread/salty things. Same idea here, you’re going to layer around what’s already on the board. So eventually all these different groups will start to form together. Try to not have the same breads touching each other.

Step 7: Repeat steps 4-6 Dont’ fill the whole board yet though. leave a little bit of room for the delicacies that we’ll fill in last.

Step 8: Add in ‘treats’ aka the fruits or chocolates you want to add to the board to finish it off.

Step 9: Add in any spoons for the spreads and then ENJOY it!! (preferably with a glass of wine and some friends/family)