How To Make the Perfect Charcuterie Board

If you know me, you know that I love charcuterie boards, wine and entertaining. If you know me, you also know that I set really high expectations for myself. Anytime I try to recreate something that I find on Pinterest, I get so frustrated with myself when it doesn’t come out perfect. I have attempted the “charcuterie board” multiple times but I feel like I finally have it down to a science and wanted to help you guys master the art of a perfect charcuterie board. I will try my best to link everything from the boards I used, to where I purchased the food and wine. P.S. AmazonFresh has been my saving grace lately.  If you haven’t tried ordering groceries on there yet you should definitely try it out for 1 month for free.

First step:

You need to own a cheese board or cutting board. I’ve linked the two that I own below.

INSERT LINK HERE

Second step: Buy the groceries!

Let’s start off with the meats. World Market has a section with some great starter kits for charcuterie boards. I purchased a “Charcuterie Sampler” that included Calabrese, Genoa Salame, Italian Dry Salame and Sopressata.

At Fresh Market I purchased a pack of “Gusto Small-Batch Artisanal Salame – Pepperoni”

After selecting your meats you will then pick out which cheeses you’d like. I encourage you to buy a variety of 3-5 cheeses depending on your crowd size! My personal favorite cheese is “Drunken Goat” cheese. Drunken Goat is a smooth cheese that is soaked in Double Pasta wine for 2-3 days.

Cheese suggestions:

• Drunken Goat

• Midnight Mood (similar to a gouda)

• Brie

• Pepper Jack or another spicier cheese

Now that the stars of the show are selected, you will then need some goodies to compliment the meat and cheeses.

Suggestions being:

• Grapes (red/green)

• Strawberries (any type of berry would be great)

• Pickles

• Olives (I did blue cheese stuffed olives & sun dried tomato stuffed olives)

• Jam, Jelly and Honey

• Nuts (I could not add nuts to my board because my mom is deathly allergic to them. I did however add some chocolate covered chickpeas!)

• Chocolate

In order to enjoy your meat, cheese and toppings properly, you will need crackers or pita bread. I decided to go with both because I enjoy variety. You can purchase a variety pack of crackers at World Market, or your local grocery store. I purchased my pita bread at Fresh Market and it was located on the aisle with the chips.. which encouraged me to also purchase “pita chips”. The more the merrier I suppose!

I also purchased a seafood crab dip at Fresh Market and served it in a bowl with the left over pita bread and crackers. This obviously isn’t a requirement, but I enjoy having variety and serving multiple options to my guest. Plus, crab dip is delicious and so is cucumber dip and hummus! Mhhhh!

I tried my very best to link exactly what I used with the exception of items that you can easily find in your local grocery store (grapes, berries, etc.) My best advice is to start with a variety of 4-5 meats and 3-5 cheeses. Once those are cut and strategically placed on the board, you can then add the crankers, bread, fruit, olives, chocolate, jams, etc.

Insert Links Here

I hope this post helped inspire you to create a beautiful and delicious cheese board for yourself or your next social gathering! If you attempt the charcuterie board, I would love for you to tag me in your post so that I can see the finished product.

Now it’s time to pop open your favorite wine and enjoy your delicious creation!

Thank you for reading!