How To Build A Charcuterie Board To Impress

I love a charcuterie board. I mean what's not to love? Cured meat, creamy cheeses, and delicious fruits? Sign me up! And the good news is, these are so easy to make. It may seem a little intimidating, but today I'm going to show you step by step how to create your own beautiful board. You may even impress some of your friends!

It's important to know that there is no wrong way to make your charcuterie board. There is no limit to what kind ingredients you choose. You do need a good tray though! Here is one that is really similar to ours, but any large cutting board could work too. I really love having a little lip on the board because it contains everything and makes it easier to transport, if needed. Let's get started!

1. The first thing you need to do is contain any of your wet ingredients. You don't want olive juice running all over your grapes or making your crackers soggy.

2. And any jars or bowl onto the board first.

3. Add your fruits and any veggies you may have. You really just place them on the board without much strategy. My goal was to spread out the colors all over the board. You could keep all the similar colors together too if you want more of an ombre look! But to keep balance I split up the colors. So in one corner I have blackberries and then on the other side of the board I have black olives. Same with the green olives and green grapes.

4. Next add your cheeses. To keep it simple we only used 2 cheese- a hard cheese and a soft cheese.

5. Now for the meat! We chose three different meats for this board and the goal is just to fit it in wherever is left. Two of our meats were foldable so one we folded in half, and the other (prosciutto) we just sort of crumbled up in one area. The other meat we had was thicker and less pliable, so we just put it on the board flat out.

6. Add crackers or bread at the end. Crackers are great to fit in in any empty space. Also, make sure you have a cheese knife or something for people to use to separate and spread the cheese.

And that's it! A beautiful board like this is something you can create really easily! You just need a board and some good and colorful ingredients!