If you’ve done any scrolling on Instagram or TikTok in the last year, you’ve probably noticed a huge surge in charcuterie boards taking over your feed. (They’re the ultimate mashup of appetizers and design – what’s not to love?) But if you’ve ever attempted to actually make a charcuterie board on your own, you’re probably faced the rude awakening that DIYing a charcuterie board isn’t *exactly* as intuitive as you might think. Instead, it’s much easier to follow along with an inspiration photo or to at least use a pro’s design as a guideline for your own board. Once you have the bones of your board, it’s easy to add your own personal details to make it unique.
So ahead, discover the ultimate charcuterie board inspiration (plus how to create the building blocks of a perfect board) — from classic charcuterie boards to more modern, creative takes on the app.
-
A Balanced Board
You can never go wrong with a classic, balanced charcuterie board. Traditional charcuterie boards typically consisted of four key categories: meat, cheese, nuts, and fruit, plus a few add-ons like crackers, wedges of sourdough, and honey or jam. All of these ingredients work together to harmonize flavor and texture; try pairing the creamy, savory flavor of cheese like brie with a sharp fruit like dried apricots and a drizzle of raw honey. Or for a textural experience, try wrapping a nutritionally rich nut like cashews or walnuts in prosciutto, then top with blackberry jam.
-
Sweet Tooth Charcuterie
Perfect for bachelorette parties, showers, Galentine’s Day, or just a night-in, dessert charcuterie boards are a cheeky way to satisfy any sweet tooth. To build your own dessert charcuterie board, you’ll want to start with a few larger items (about the size of your fist) to act as a guide for the rest of the board. Place three-to-four larger dessert items like cookies, slices of cake, tartes, or pudding cups randomly on your board. Then begin to fill in the gaps with medium-sized treats like bite-sized cupcakes, chocolate-covered pretzels, wafers, or French macarons. Finally, fill in any remaining gaps with small candies like gummies, chocolates, and mini marshmallows. You can follow a “grouping” design (as in the example below), or create patterns like waves and hearts with your desserts. Have fun with this one — since everything is sweet, you can focus less on providing a balanced charcuterie experience and pivot your energy to creating something fun and playful.
-
Monochromatic Charcuterie
Monochromatically-styled boards are a huge trend popping up in the charcuterie space. Pick your favorite color (or color family) and have it at — the options are endless. Here, charcuterie influencer @charcuterie.chick has created a bright red board complete with salami roses, raspberries, and “hole punch” brie filled with pomegranate seeds. (Psst, while you can certainly hand-slice your desired shape, we recommend just ordering a cookie cutter for more precision — and your sanity.)
-
Charcuterie Cake
A tiered charcuterie cake is one of those table centerpieces that looks like it requires hours of effort and a ton of experience in the kitchen, but it’s actually a super low-lift to recreate. Just by three wheels of cheese — one large, one, medium, and one small. (We recommend a wheel of gouda for the bottom tier, brie for the center, and a package of Bourskin for the top tier.) Stack your cheese in order of largest to smallest to create the appearance of a tiered cake, then add your favorite toppings. In this example by @cheesebynumbers, an outline of alternating blackberries and nuts is used to mimic detailed icing pipework you might find on an actual cake, and a drizzle of blackberry jam to top things off. If you’re feeling like an overachiever, you can add a few fresh flowers (or salami roses) as a finishing touch. Et voila!
-
Green Goddess Charcuterie
Looking for a way to put a healthy spin on charcuterie? Try a green goddess board, which goes light on the meats and cheeses and doubles up on the veggies instead. Just don’t get it twisted — healthy does not mean boring. Play with different colors and textures by incorporating a variety of vegetables, like bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, celery, and cherry tomatoes. Then use cookie cutters and fruits to add fun details like star-shaped kiwis, heart-shaped watermelon, and anything else that calls to you. Finish off your green goddess board with dips like hummus and tzatziki to keep things on the heart-healthy and low-calorie side.
-
Charcuterie Cones
If you’re looking for a COVID-friendly way to share charcuterie with friends outdoors, try whipping up some charcuterie cones, which forgo the board altogether and instead involve building individual cups of charcuterie. Try making these grab-and-go friendly by building balanced bites in skewers, using bite-sized meats and cheeses, and breadsticks.
-
Wake-Up Call Board
The only thing that could possibly top breakfast in bed is a breakfast-themed charcuterie board in bed. Instead of your classic wheels of brie and folded prosciutto, breakfast charcuterie boards are composed of fun-sized brunch staples, like mini-waffles, fruit slices, and granola. The only thing missing from this design by @fraicheliving is a vessel of maple syrup to dip these adorable heart-shaped waffles into.
We only recommend products we have independently researched, tested, and loved. If you purchase a product found through our links, Sunday Edit may earn an affiliate commission.
