A Guide To The Perfect Charcuterie Board At Home.

Hi,

What are you upto this weekend?

To be quite honest, I’ve been feeling so low this chilly week in Edmonton. I stayed indoors for the most part. That being said, now is the time for me to hop on to the whole charcuterie board rage. Can you believe I haven’t made one yet? So, I turned to my chef friend (aka the charcuterie board expert)Andrea and asked her to help out with a guide to the perfect charcuterie board at home. Here goes:

This is called a “guide,” but I would use that term lightly as I don’t think there should be strict rules about what can and cannot be on a charcuterie board, rather suggestions of how to build one that will have all your close friends on Instagram heart-reacting to your story.

Simplicity

The most important thing about the board is keeping it simple. A lot of the time, I see food bloggers or websites post pictures of huge wooden boards, filled to the brim with meats, cheeses, fruits, nuts, glitter… you’ve seen these! I’ve even come across pictures on Pinterest of “charcuterie tables” where a whole table at a party is just covered in snacks? Especially during the pandemic, this makes me cringe— it’s just a table full of meat and cheese that people are continually touching???

How much?

So I think it’s important to try not to get carried away because that can get daunting. I usually like to go with 2 types of meats and cheeses per person. As for quantity, I would say it really depends because some people think of it as an appetizer, whereas sometimes I just like to set up a board as our dinner, and we can pick at it throughout the night. In an article by Epicurious, they suggest about 50g of meat per person for an appetizer and about 150g of meat if it’s the majority of the meal. Again, it really is dependent on the person, but getting too much shouldn’t be a problem since you can always make another board on a different occasion, or use the leftovers for a sandwich or to cook with.

The elements

Pre-quarantine when having people over, I would make a board for about three to four people most often. Thus I would include:

– a smoked meat

– a spicy meat (ex. spicy salami, spicy soppressata, chorizo, porchetta)

– a slice of mild, rich meat (ex. prosciutto, mortadella, serrano ham, Jamon Iberico)

– a soft cheese (ex. brie, camembert, goat cheese, ricotta)

– a firm(er) cheese (ex. gouda, gruyere, manchego, Munster, comte, cheddar)

– 1-2 fruits and/or nuts (ex. grapes, figs, apple slices, berries, almonds, pecans, pistachios)

– a sweet jelly and/or honey (ex. fig jam, apricot jam, quince jam, truffle jam)

– mustard and/or spicy jelly (ex. dijon mustard, pepper jelly)

– pickles and/or olives (ex. dill pickles, cornichons, castelvetrano olives, stuffed olives)

– bread and/or crackers (ex. toasted baguette slices, sourdough bread, whole wheat crackers)

The fun part

Once you have everything, you can arrange it as you please, paying attention to the contrasting colours, textures and flavours. This will create something that is visually appealing and is sure to impress whoever you’re sharing it with

Drink pairing

I don’t know if this is controversial, but I don’t really think you have to either drink red or white wine specifically with a charcuterie board. I enjoy drinking a cold sparkling dry white wine to pair with the lighter elements such as the cheeses, just as much as savouring a deep red with the rich meats.

A note about quality

Your board will only taste as good as the ingredients. Although cured meats and specialty cheeses are expensive. Going to a deli or cheese vendor and choosing (post-covid sampling) your own board elements will be more delicious, better quality, and cheaper per quantity than you would pay for a board at a restaurant.