How to Make a Charcuterie Board Like a Pro

Hillary Ryan
Jan 22
2 min read

Updated: Oct 23

Cheese and charcuterie boards are certainly having a moment. What’s not to love? Your guests get to try a little bit of everything and you get an excuse to play with your food.

In my recent Charcuterie 101 class, students learned the basics to a beautiful board and created their own to take home. If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at one, here’s your sign to give it a shot. Let’s make some edible art!

Planning your board

The 3-3-3-3 rule is a good place to start. You can always deviate from this, but I like to start with: 3 cheese, 3 meats, 3 starches, and 3 accoutrements.

Cheeses:

A mix of hard and soft
Stay away from overly strong cheeses like blue.
Brie - an excellent centerpiece - can be sliced into wedges or left whole
Goat cheese log (can serve as a log or slice and fan out)
Smoked cheese (gouda, edam, etc.)
Semi-hard cheese (manchego, white stilton)
Mild cheese sliced or cubed (white cheddar, mild cheddar, pepper jack, havarti)

Homemade cheese crackers give this board something special

Meats:

Salami
Pepperoni
Prosciutto
Capocollo
Sopressata

Starches:

Stand alone -

Cheese crackers
Cheese straws
Rosemary breadsticks

Accompaniments -

Water crackers
Sourdough baguette
Puff pastry

Accoutrements:

Fruit (stay away from fruit that will soften or brown while on the platter such as bananas, melon, etc.) -

Strawberries
Blackberries
Blueberries
Grapes
Cherries
Oranges
Apples and pears are okay if serving immediately (soak in lemon juice)

Veggies:

Pickles
Olives
Cucumbers
Mini Sweet Peppers (serve whole or slice in half and fill with whipped cream cheese and top with EBTB seasoning)

Spreads:

Honey
Dijon
Tapenade
Jam
Chutney
Scoring your brie and topping it with honey is neat styling option

Salty & Sweet

We do not use any nuts in Itty Bitty Bakers classes; but outside of class, nuts are a great accompaniment for your board! Try a mix of salty and sweet.