With Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl (which is pretty much v-day for men) right around the corner I figured it was the perfect opportunity to share how to make a charcuterie board like a pro (even if you’re a beginner)!
The best part about putting together a charcuterie board is that you really have to freedom to pick and choose your favourite flavours and you can make it as big or small as you want. So whether it’s a date night or a group event it works!
I’ll admit I’m definitely a beginner when it comes to charcuterie-ing and after looking at all the pinterest photos of these amazing spreads I was officially intimidated. But after doing a little research I soon realized it wasn’t that complicated after all and Josh and I actually had a lot of fun creating it.
What I learned from putting our board together was that the goal to creating a bomb.com charcuterie board is mixing and matching flavours and textures. It’s always great to have both savoury and sweet options along with soft foods mixed with something that packs a crunch. And at the end of the day you’re working with meat, cheese, and bread so you really can’t go wrong!
Ok, lets break things down a bit shall we…
Cheese
Ahh cheese, what would life be without it!? Picking the cheese was my favourite part because A. I love cheese and B. I just love cheese. But for real, the key to picking the cheese is to have a variety of different textures on your board and play with soft, medium, and hard cheese’s. For our charcuterie board we went with a soft goat and brie, a medium jalapeño cheddar, and a hard parmesan cheese perfect for wrapping with soft prosciutto and salami slices.
Meat
I’m not a huge meat lover so I let Josh make the executive decisions for this one but just like picking the cheese, you want to mix flavours and textures. I’m not a pâté person but when it comes to softer meats that’s always a great option, along with prosciutto and salami’s. One thing we did was warmed a sausage in the oven which was super delish and one of the stars of the board. And if you’re wondering how much meat to grab 2 ounces of charcuterie per person should do the trick!
Bread
Like Oprah, I to love bread…and carbs in general. The bread portion of the charcuterie board is basically the vessel that will hold all of the yummy ingredients so you want to make sure they can We decided to go with a thin cracker and a softer ciabatta loaf that we sliced into medium sized pieces which were perfect for stacking.
Accents
Now this is where you can really add in some fun and personality into your charcuterie board- with the accents! There are a handful of extras that you can add onto your board from nuts, jams, and pickled goods that will help your board to another level. I absolutely love acids and a good crunch so adding pickles was a total must. My grandma makes a mean homemade jam so we threw that in. Blackberries were my fruit of choice this time around. Along with a mix of honey roasted peanuts and spicy cashews. However, if those aren’t your cup of tea you can add olives, chutneys, figs, mustard…the options are endless and delicious. Yum!
