Call it what you want to, but to me these are the ultimate adult lunchable.
Variety of meats and cheeses ranging in textures and flavors, fruits, nuts, and other delightful accompaniments,
Pairings are endless on a charcuterie board.
They're enjoyable to assemble but they're even better to eat,
and I'd love to show you how to make a beautiful charcuterie board today on The Stay At Home Chef.
Originally a charcuterie board just had a variety of cured delicious meats.
Then came along cheeses and then additional tasty items like fruits and nuts that really do make these boards nearly a full meal.
Today I want to go over the variety of cheeses, meats, and all the other tasty items that are on the charcuterie board.
One thing I want to point out right from the beginning is you should make the charcuterie board to your liking.
Just because there are certain meats and cheeses that I adore, I don't expect you to like them,
so make it how you want to.
The way I like to start the assembly of my charcuterie board is with the cheeses.
I like to choose cheeses that are hard, semi-hard, and soft.
Based on the size of the charcuterie board I'm making I may choose multiples from each of those categories.
Using a large board take those cheeses and place them around.
Starting with my soft cheeses, I love having a cheese that is spreadable on my board,
so I'm using a Brie and a flavored roulade cheese, which I have found so many tasty flavors of.
I say get adventurous.
A charcuterie board is an awesome opportunity to find something that you might just love.
Another delicious soft cheese is a goat cheese.
Other ideas of soft cheeses that are pretty common is a cream cheese, a mozzarella, or a burrata.
The list goes on and on, but let's shift over to our semi-soft cheeses.
The semi-soft cheeses that I'm using are a gouda, because it's a gouda obviously,
and plain gouda or smoked gouda.
I don't think you can go wrong.
When I've got a wheel of cheese like this I like to pre-cut a few little wedges.
Havarti is a semi-soft cheese that I have loved since I was a little kid.
I like to slice off a few slices of them and have them spread about the board.
There are some wonderful flavors of havarti to explore.
Dill is my favorite.
In my hometown there was a cheese plant and they made fresh cheese curds and they were my favorite,
so of course those are going on the board.
Munster and pepperjack are perfect for the semi-soft cheese category.
I like to pre-cube these but you can slice them or you could leave the brick whole.
Then onto the harder cheeses, I like to do just little cuts on these and leave the knife nearby,
because you just need a little tasting because of the richness of the flavors.
Using a Parmesan, a sharp cheddar, a pecorino, gruyere, or asiago, place those on the board.
Then we're going to add in the next item which is the charcuterie hero: the meat.
Place these lovely piles near the cheeses, and a fun way to display these is to make a meat rose.
Let me show you how you how to do that.
Using a small bowl or cup and a thin sliced meat like salami, take a slice of meat and bend it around the top of the cup in half.
Go around the diameter and overlap the slices of meat.
Circle around the cup a few times until the center nearly disappears.
Flip it over, remove the cup, and voila!
You have a beautiful meat rose.
Place the different types of meats throughout the board, and the variety is totally up to your choosing.
this is totally satisfying just like this, but we're going to make it even better by adding in some little accoutrements,
such as a little honeycomb and honey, variety of olives,
and then I love a light spread of stone ground mustard, so I always put that on my board.
Adding some fruit to the board can lighten it up a bit.
Taking the grapes I like to cut them into little clusters so that they're easier to get to.
Apples, berries, and pears are other fruit that hold up nicely and pair beautifully with the cheese.
Whatever fruit you like is what you should put on your board.
Add in the crackers or bread,
and if you're doing crackers I like to have varieties of crackers for all of the different textures and flavors.
Other garnishes that fill in the board are some nuts, some dried fruit, or even your favorite candy.
Charcuterie boards are so satisfying to make but even more so to indulge in.
With just a little bit of effort you can have the best lunchable or charcuterie board,
(whatever you want to call it) ever,
and you are ready to eat.
Thanks for watching.
You can find the full written recipe in the video description below.
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where you can find hundreds of restaurant quality recipes
you can easily make at home.
We'll see you later.