A beautiful charcuterie board is a statement piece and a time saver. Charcuterie boards have risen to a revered status in the world of snacks and appetizers. Aim for contrasting and complementary tastes & textures and experiment with flavor combinations.

How To Build a Perfect Charcuterie Board

recipe courtesy of Martha Tinkler for Food Network Kitchen

The following ingredient list is just a suggestion (designed for 8-10 servings) – you can include anything YOU like and substitute liberally.

The Market is a great place to find many of your ingredients like fresh veggies and fruits from our produce growers, Christopher Farms, Freedom Valley, Full Hand, Garcia’s Gardens, Norman Mullet, and Redwine Farms; meats from Pig’s Tale, Old Major and Mkono; hard and soft cheeses from Tulip Tree and Sirocco Ridge; jams from Home Ec, Redwine and Mkono; honey from Eagle Creek Apiary; dips from Farm to Product and Eat Surreal; breads from Native Bread, Chez Pauline, and James Michael Thomas; and more.

And check out Dickinson Woodworking for a beautiful wood board to serve it all on.

Ingredients:

  • 4 to 5 ounces thinly sliced dry-cured pork, such as prosciutto, country ham, speck, Serrano ham, capicola, Iberico ham or coppa
  • 4 to 5 ounces thinly sliced salami, such as sweet or hot soppressata, finocchiona or Genoa salami
  • 4 ounces thinly sliced dry-cured beef or other meats, such as bresaola or mortadella
  • 4 ounces meat or poultry spreads, such as rillettes, pâté or ‘nduja
  • 7 to 8 ounces soft cheese, such as Brie, Camembert, burrata, goat cheese, Gorgonzola dolce, fresh ricotta or triple-cream
  • 7 to 8 ounces semi-soft cheese, such as goat, fontina, muenster, Roquefort or Havarti
  • 7 to 8 ounces firm cheese, such as Cheddar, Gouda, Gruyère, Stilton, Jarlsberg or manchego

  • beautiful wood boards at Dickinson Woodworking

    7 to 8 ounces hard cheese, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, asiago or mimolette

  • 1/2 cup local honey
  • Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 cup fig jam
  • 1 small bunch seedless green, red or other varietal grapes (about 1 pound), separated into smaller bundles
  • Pickled or raw vegetables, such as radishes, okra, peppers or green beans, drained, for serving
  • 1/2 cup cornichons, gherkins, kosher dill slices, bread and butter or your favorite pickles, drained
  • 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
  • 1 cup spiced or candied nuts
  • 1/2 cup dried apricots or your favorite dried fruit
  • 1 pint fresh figs or other ripe fruit, halved or sliced
  • 1 baguette, half torn into pieces and half sliced and toasted for crostini
  • 2 packages crackers or breadsticks

Directions:

  1. Place each type of meat on a different section of a large serving board. To make the slices easy to grab and visually interesting, fold and shape them in a variety of ways. You can make rosettes by folding pieces of meat in half and then rolling each up like a cigar. Pinch the cured ham into little mounds or arrange in swirls. Salamis can be rolled or folded into quarters and stretched across a section of the board in little “rivers.” Add the spreads to the board next, either mounded directly on the board or in small containers or on plates with a broad knife for spreading.
  2. Divide the cheeses among the sections, pairing them with the meats and spreads to contrast flavors and textures. Experiment with combinations. Try a creamy burrata or Brie as a companion to salty-sweet prosciutto; match a firm or hard cheese like asiago with a soft, mild mortadella; place a mild buttery fontina with a spicy salami to mellow it out. To encourage noshing, break the hard cheese into large shards, cut a wedge or two from a full wheel and slice some of the bigger blocks into easy-to-grab pieces.
  3. Pour the honey into a small glass jar or bowl, sprinkle in a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and nestle it among the meats and cheeses with a little spoon for serving. Place the quince paste on a small plate or cutting board and the fig jam in a small bowl and place them among the meats. Arrange bundles of grapes near the saltier cheeses.
  4. Put the pickled vegetables, cornichons and mustard in separate small bowls and add them to the board. Fill in some the empty spaces with piles of nuts and apricots. Plug other blank spots with the figs or other fresh fruit. Fill in any remaining spaces with the baguette pieces, crostini, crisps and crackers, then put any remaining in a separate dish or basket.
  5. Serve the board at room temperature with an assortment of knives for cutting and spreading, small forks for spearing and spoons for drizzling and scooping. The board can sit at room temperature for up to 2 hours.

We know this time of year can get pretty hectic. No time to source all the ingredients? – order everything you need from Old Major Market! No time to build a board? – order a ready-to-serve board from Pig’s Tale Charcuterie!

 

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