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A fully assembled charcuterie board on slate with folded cured meats, several cheeses, grapes, dried apricots, olives and fanned crackers

Charcuterie Board

Nothing is cooked: the work is buying the right amounts and putting them down in the right order. Twenty minutes of assembly feeds eight from about 28 oz of cured meat and 21 oz of cheese.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Calories: 550
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Cured meats, about 28 oz
  • 8 oz prosciutto or serrano ham
  • 8 oz capicola or bresaola
  • 8 oz soppressata or Genoa salami
  • 4 oz pate optional, if you want something to spread
Cheeses, about 21 oz in four textures
  • 5 oz soft cheese a log of chevre or a small brie
  • 8 oz semi-firm cheese Gouda or Fontina, left as a wedge
  • 4 oz blue cheese Roquefort or Gorgonzola
  • 4 oz hard cheese aged cheddar, Manchego or Parmesan
Everything else
  • grapes, sliced apple or pear, dried apricots toss apple or pear in lemon juice so it does not brown
  • olives, cornichons, pickled onions in small bowls
  • fig jam, honey, wholegrain mustard in small bowls
  • Marcona almonds or walnuts
  • sliced baguette, flatbread crackers, breadsticks buy more than you think you need
  • rosemary or thyme sprigs for filling gaps

Equipment

  • Large board or platter
  • Two or three small bowls
  • A cheese knife per cheese
  • Small tongs
  • Spoons for the bowls

Method
 

  1. Choose a board larger than feels necessary and set out two or three small bowls for anything wet, before any food goes down.
  2. Place each cheese in a different quadrant, wide apart. The board should still look almost empty at this stage.
  3. Add the meats beside each cheese, folding or ribboning the slices rather than laying them flat so they have height.
  4. Fill the large gaps: the bowls of olives, jam and mustard, then clusters of grapes and the larger fruit. Work from biggest to smallest.
  5. Close the small gaps with nuts, dried fruit and crackers, overlapping onto the meats and cheeses. Step back a metre and look for sparse areas.
  6. Tuck in herb sprigs, then add a knife for each cheese, a spoon for each bowl and tongs for the meat.

Notes

Food safety: cured meat, soft cheese and pate are perishable. Discard anything left at room temperature longer than two hours, or one hour above 90F. Put out half and refill at the 90-minute mark with cold replacements rather than topping up the first batch.
Quantities per person: 1 to 2 oz each of meat and cheese as an appetiser, about 4 oz each if the board is the meal.
Make-ahead: assemble up to a day in advance without crackers, bread or nuts, cover tightly and refrigerate. Take it out 30 to 45 minutes before serving, and count that time towards the two hours.
Leftovers keep up to 4 days refrigerated, but only what stayed within the two-hour window. Repackage meats and cheeses separately.
Nutrition is an estimate, not a laboratory analysis, and counts the meat and cheese only.