Charcuterie Board

The first time I put out a charcuterie spread for regular-old family dinner, my then 6-year-old (seeing an array of choices made exciting by its layout) gushed, "It's like what a king would have for his birthday dinner!" Now we call it the King's Birthday Dinner, which adds a little sparkle to a Tuesday night eating hummus.

Wisconsin charcuterie plate: Sharp cheddar, summer sausage, and Ritz. Crowd-pleaser every time.

this a great base to start from, but as the note indicates, charcuterie boards are really REALLY good when they are customized to you and/or your guest's tastes. Any combo of raw veggies, cheese, dried meats, nuts, and spreads will do. Oh and PICKLED stuff, too. For instance, in my family, the whipped ricotta, whitefish, and radishes here would sit untouched. So, we replace that with some red pesto and hummus as spreads and raw carrots and tomatoes cause the kids won't reject those outright :)

I love this and as a professional Cheesemonger I do want to make sure everyone knows that charcuterie means cured meats, pate, terrines etc. It doesn't mean food on a board. I feel like Instagram has confused the use of the term. In the world of gastronomy this beautiful board is a cheese board with added charcuterie.

I love that you include smoked whitefish, paté, quince/guava/fig paste/jam, and whipped ricotta. There’s a nice selection of meats and cheeses, and the Marcona almonds, radishes, and mixed olives is to die for. I forget that the bread is there, but I myself would like butter because everything goes better with it, especially cured meats and smoked fish … or just slices of sweet sharp radishes. Don’t forget about parsley, it’s so refreshing. Designing charcuterie boards is such fun!

As a football (soccer) fan, I often entertain for the finals of international competitions, creating two charcuterie boards (one for each country) with meats, cheeses, spreads, vegetables, olives, nuts & breads/crackers representative of each country. This past summer saw competing boards from Italy & England (European Championship) as well as Spain & France (Nation's League), paired with wines, beers and cocktails from each country (well, just beer for England). Fun to create and fun to eat.

We adore charcuterie! Our local grocer recently started carrying Murray's cheeses and it makes our boards feel a little more special. Our boards would not be complete without gerkins, prosciutto, dates (try putting a dab of bleu cheese on a date and wrapping it in prosciutto-you can thank me later), grapes, fig and orange jam, onion jam, and of course, good ol' fashioned black olives from a can so the kids can put them on their fingers.

We do this every Christmas after the main meal but before the dessert course. Ours features a blue cheese, a soft cheese like a triple-cream brie, an aged cheddar, and maybe one more cheeses that are interesting or pair especially well with our main course's wines. Then we add a pate or a terrine, fresh fruit like seedless grapes or sliced apple, a relish that pair well with the cheese, and candied pecans. This platter is served with sliced baguette and sliced hazelnut raisin bread. Yum!

A common Japanese snack is cucumber with miso. Very simple, very refreshing. And, I think miso makes a good addition or substitute for pate on a charcuterie board, but in a much smaller quantity than the 8oz listed here.

This is my go-to when I have to bring something to a gathering or for hosting an activity (like tree trimming). A nice board also makes a great gift: Bring the loaded board to the party and leave it for the host. It's worth it to buy bamboo bamboo picks and invest in small forks, spoons and tongs for serving.

With mostly vegetarians and vegans in our family, we've found that we can do a beautiful version of a similar spread, just subbing non-dairy cheeses from our local food co-op for the animal products. It's a fun way to do some taste testing of the many new options, with plenty of testers so we don't have much left over, even if we weren't crazy about some of the choices. With larger, mixed groups of eaters, separate serving plates for the dairy/meat and non-dairy options are a welcome touch.

Grilled Artichokes!!!

For the cheese board we had on Thanksgiving I included a fig jam, which I bought on impulse at the last minute, even though I thought my in-laws would consider it too "high falutin'" (as they do with most everything lol) I had to explain at first to put it on a cracker with some cheese- but turned out it was a hit, and everyone kept commenting on how great it was and what was it again and where did I get it?! Also, some of the cheeses were vegan and they didn't even notice! ;)

some honey and mustard are always welcome along with palate cleansing crackers. I make my own croutons with butter/oil, garlic and parmesan and throw a small bowl of these as well for something different

I love some fresh items that create a combo charcuterie/crudités- such as Jamie Oliver’s mint/pea/Parmesan spread (over the ricotta thing); some heirloom baby carrots w/ stems along w/ the radishes, endive, some fennel slices…. And cornichons. Variety of baguette, rice crackers (lots of gluten free folks in my circles) etc.