The holidays are centered around snacking, and there’s no better way to snack than charcuterie boards. Serve all your favorite snacks at once! Below are three charcuterie themes to get you started. The beauty of charcuterie is experimentation—swap out ingredients or add more of your favorites.
1. Classic Christmas Board
Recipe / Image Credit: Twelve on Main
Ingredients:
- Pomegranate seeds
- Sugared cranberries
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Orange slices
- Pistachios
- Wholegrain mustard
- Baguette slices
- Your choice of cured meat
- Your choice of crackers
- Your choice of cheese
- Your choice of jam (something that pairs nicely with your cheese)
- Sugared rosemary (optional)
Ingredients:
- Brie baked with olive oil and rosemary (follow this tutorial)
- Saint Nudge Cheese (linked here) placed in a small bowl and topped with honey
- Fresh French Bread sliced on an angle
- Honey for Drizzling
- Salted Marcona Almonds (linked here)
- Green Grapes
- Sliced Green Apple
- Green Olives
- Rosemary (for baking the brie) and for garnish
3. Sweet Citrus & Spice Cheese Board
Recipe / Image Credit: Real California Milk
Ingredients:
Select three to five cheeses of varying flavors and textures. Many prefer three because it doesn’t challenge the palate with too many flavors yet provides good variety and contrast. When selecting cheeses, create a range of flavors and textures from soft to hard and milk to sharp, even pungent varieties.
- A bloomy rind cheese such as Brie, Camembert or Formagella.
- A soft or washed-rind cheese such as Teleme or Crescenza.
- A semi-firm hard cheese such as Raw Milk Cheddar, Gouda, St. George or Toma.
- A very hard aged cheese such as Dry Jack, Aged Gouda or Estero Gold.
- A highly flavorful or pungent cheese such as Blue, Schloss or flavored and spiced cheeses
- Add your favorite citrus.
- Add olives and almonds.
