The Art of Building a Board

Hey gals! For my first blog post, I figured I would start with the basics…and that would be with the art of building a charcuterie board. Of course, everyone has their own way of doing things. My #1 tip? Find out what works best for you, practice at home on a random Tuesday night, then rinse and repeat ‘til you have your technique down pat. This way you’re feeling confident whenever you decide to create your first show-stopping board for an actual party or event.

I’ve personally found the greatest success in starting with the items on the board that I anticipate will take up the most space. This usually includes charcuterie arrangements and ramekins filled with pickles, olives or jam. From there, I move on to medium-sized items, things like arrangements of sliced cheese, crackers, and larger fruits. Next, I fill in the gaps with smaller accents — think nuts or dried berries. I finish it off with any garnishes I have on hand, or, I often leave it alone and let the board speak for itself. I’m all about only including garnishes if they really elevates your plate visually or (ideally) enhance your flavors. You’ll very rarely see me garnishing with anything other than mint, rosemary or basil for that very reason!

Now that you’ve got the basics, let’s build a board together! Check out my step-by-step process below:

Start with your large real estate items

Here I start by adding my two ramekins. One is full of jam, and the other has gherkins. I also created a salami river to add some visual interest! When building a salami river, work in sections and try to create tension against edges of the board or ramekins.

Add in medium-sized items

In this case, I added crackers, strawberries, clementines, cheeses, and prosciutto. Any time I add an item, I try to counter-balance it with another item similar in size in other open spot on the board.

Fill in the blanks

Small nuts and berries are your friends ladies! I used smoked almonds, unshelled pistachios, and blueberries to complete this board. Once you’ve filled in all of your blank spaces, you are done and ready to serve! Voila!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of my very first blog post! I hope you gleaned some inspiration that can help you build your own board very soon! Blogging is obviously still very new to me, so please let me know what else you’d like to see here. You can send me a message through the “get in touch” page on my website, by DM’ing me on instagram @galmeetsgraze, or via email at galmeetsgraze@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you, so let’s chat soon! XO, Krista