How to Make a Simple Charcuterie Board

If you follow what I do, you'll know that I love making Charcuterie boards.  They are so easy & fun, and they look so nice.  They are always a crowd pleaser, and you can put just about anything on them.  

FIrst, you have to figure out what kind of board you want to make.  What do you want to put on it?  Cheese, meat, fruit, sandwiches, jellies, sweets etc, are all great options.  That's the fun part.  I've done them all and they've always been delicious.  

For a cheese based board, I typically pick 3-4 cheeses.  Good ones are old cheddars, blue cheese, a hard cheese (like parmesan) and a soft cheese like brie or bocconcini.  Brie cheese always seem to disappear first.  Then you can add grapes, nuts, crackers, veggies, dip, olives, honey and dried fruit. 

For Meats, a good quality prosciutto is always a crowd pleaser. Add a type of salami and/or what other deli meats you like.  I usually stick with Prosciutto (rolled up) and salami. This picture below is from this post here.

For a Fruit board - a Fruicuterie Board - you can use any fruit you like.  Raspberries, apples, bananas, strawberries, blackberries, oranges, green grapes, watermelon, peaches etc. Add some of your favourite cheese too. See how this one below is put together here.

For sandwiches boards, you can do a mix of all the above boards, and then just add delicious little sandwiches as shown below. These sandwiches have smoked salmon, turkey and cheese, as well as strawberries & chocolate in them. Yum!  They are made by Vine & Vintage.

You can make these boards as fancy or as simple as you like.

I did this board below for V-day.  See the post here.
I did a mix of everything. I even added chocolate, different types of crackers, fruit and nuts.  

How to build it?  Start with the bigger pieces first.  I place my cheese, dips, sandwiches first then fill in the spaces with the smaller ingredients. You may have to move things around to fit everything in properly.  

Here's a great diagram from 'Room from Tuesday' that shows you how to place everything. Post here.

Have fun with your board.  You can't make a mistake.  Everyone loves a charcuterie board. Perfect for lunches, dinners, picnics, appetizers, etc.