Anyone who has tried to arrange an eye-catching cheese or charcuterie board knows it’s not as easy as it sounds. Where do the crackers go? Do you fan them out or stand them sideways like books? Should you roll up the slices of cured meats or layer them? How do you keep the veggies in neat little piles? What should you use to fill up empty space? More crackers?
In this season of socializing, you might find yourself in need of quick and elegant hors d’oeuvres to bring to a party or to serve at home. The beauty of cheese or charcuterie boards is that they require zero cooking, provide a great starting point when guests arrive and never seem to go out of style. But these assemblages of cheeses and meats can end up being amazing or just meh. The difference maker is this: The best boards have no blank spaces.
Cheese boards are by no means new, but you can thank Instagram for the country’s new obsession with tight arrangements of cured meats, cheeses, gourmet crackers, nuts, olives, fruit and spreadables. The guiding principle of Instagrammers is to cram lots of ingredients together so that the board feels generous and the wood beneath barely shows.
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Read on for tips from 225 food writer Maggie Heyn Richardson, which originally appeared in a December 2019 edition of 225 Dine.