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How to Make a Charcuterie Board

Writer's picture: Hillary RyanHillary Ryan
Jan 22

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.

a round charcuterie board filled with meats, cheeses, and berries made by hillary ryan of itty bitty bakers
Cheese crackers from scratch give this board something special

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 cheeses

  • 3 meats

  • 3 starches

  • 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)

a round charcuterie board sits atop a wooden table and shows a scored cheese block, honey comb wooden stick, salami roses, cream cheese stuffed peppers and more
Scoring your brie and topping it with honey is neat styling option

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)

screenshot of mobile page of amazon storefront featuring charcuterie board items such as a small jar of honey
Amazon finds for making charcuterie boards

Spreads and Jams

  • Honey

  • Dijon

  • Tapenade

  • Jam

  • Chutney


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.

  • EBTB seasoned nuts

  • Candied pecans

  • Rosemary marcona almonds

  • Dark chocolate covered caramel

  • Macarons

  • Chocolate covered pretzels

  • Chocolate covered nuts

  • Candy


Charcuterie Tools

Our Amazon storefront has some of my favorite charcuterie tools.


Check them out and get ready to eat a platter of pretty snacks!


Here are a few pictures of Itty Bitty Bakers students showing off their creations at the end of class.







 

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