What is the 3 3 3 rule for charcuterie boards?

What is the 3-3-3-3 Rule for Charcuterie Boards? No matter the style of the wood charcuterie board, you can always follow the 3-3-3-3 rule. Every charcuterie board should have three meats, three cheeses, three starch options, and three accompaniments, such as fruit, nuts, or veggies .

What are the best 3 cheeses for a charcuterie board?

Here's some of the best cheese for charcuterie boards: Hard cheese: chunks of parmesan, aged gouda, asiago . Firm cheese: gruyere, comte, manchego, colby, cheddar. Semi-soft cheese: havarti, butterkäse, muenster.

What is the best shape for a charcuterie board?

Round is the most popular shape for medium sized parties , and handle boards is the most popular for smaller parties of 2 or 4. Round contrasts nicely with the shapes of a lot of cheeses and crackers. It is also easy for your guests to enjoy without feeling like they're on the "back side" of the board.

What is the best surface for a charcuterie board?

Find a charcuterie board that is made of wood and has a durable finish. Marble, glass, and ceramic charcuterie boards all look great but can damage and dull your serving knife and are more fragile.

What makes a nice fruit platter?

Visually, your eye needs to have a focal point and to be able to see each type of fruit . After all the fruit is arranged, I add flat green leaves around the outside of the fruit, to set off the colors. Use lemon and galax leaves from your florist, or fig leaves and grape leaves from your garden.

How do you make a fruit platter exciting?

Interesting fruit platter ideas for serving Use hollowed pineapples or coconut shells for extra interest . Add edible flowers and sprigs of mint. Make sure there's a bowl or trash can for guests to discard of any pips, stems or peelings.

What does every charcuterie board need?

Cured meats: Prosciutto, genoa salami, chorizo, sopressata, ham, and cured sausages are all classic choices for a charcuterie board. Cheese: Choose a variety of textures and flavors. A few options are soft brie, burrata and camembert. For firm cheese oprions try cheddar, manchego, Parmesan and gouda.

What should every charcuterie board have?

This includes cooked and cured meat products like hams, sausages, terrines, and pâtés . While traditionally that was the jest of it, these days a charcuterie board implies a spread of cured meats, cheeses, fresh fruits, spreads, crackers, and breads.

What are the three starches for a charcuterie board?

3 Starches: we like Taralli (a traditional Italian cracker almost like a small, circular breadstick), Artisan Crisps by Rustic Bakery, and baguettes from Gilles Baguettes . 3 Accompaniments: Cerignola olives, Marcona almonds, French cornichons.

Are there rules for charcuterie boards?

Depending on the size of your board, you should have one each of cow, sheep, and goat options with soft rind, firm, and hard cheeses in the mix. Flavors should range between nutty and mild to funky and unique. Rule of thumb: 1 cow, 1 sheep, 1 goat; 1 soft, 1 firm, 1 hard .

What is the ratio for a charcuterie board?

I've found the following ratio works great: 4 types of cheese, 4 types of meat, 3 types of bread/crackers, 1 type of chocolate, 2-3 different nuts, 1 jam, 1 honey, and 1-2 types of olives .

How to Build a Beautiful Fruit Charcuterie Board (2024)

Learn how to create an incredible fruit charcuterie board that’s perfect for entertaining! Learn a few top pairings for fruit, and my tips for creating a beautiful and irresistible charcuterie board quickly at home.

Table Of Contents

Tips to making a beautiful fruit charcuterie board
- Choose a board
- What fruits to choose for charcuterie
- How to cut fruit for charcuterie
- What’s the best way to arrange fruit on a charcuterie board
- Adding fresh vegetables
- Dips to include on a charcuterie board
- Choosing meats and cheeses
- Selecting Wine pairings
- The finishing touches:

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Tips to making a beautiful fruit charcuterie board

Choose a board

If you’re entertaining a crowd, large serving trays or a large board is the best option. I used a round platter from Crate and Barrel which is sold out, but you can find similar oneshere,hereandhere. Another popular pick is thislarge wood cutting board. If you’re making a small fruit charcuterie board for date night, a small square orrectangular boardis a great option. This also works if you have other appetizers you’re serving at a party, and a smaller charcuterie board.

What fruits to choose for charcuterie

Select a colorful variety of your favorite fruits!Pickan assortment of colors and flavors for your fruits. Fresh berries, tart cherries, juicy watermelon, sweet strawberries, and crisp granny smith apples are all great options.You can even include dried fruit! I did a fun watermelon “pizza” in the middle of my board for some extra fun.Super simple to make, and a fun way to enjoy fruit! Just slice one watermelon round like a pizza, and on each individual slice, place a little cool whip (you’ll have to use a scoop or spoon, spreading the cool whip on there is difficult). Top with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and pomegranate seeds to garnish.I threw on some feta for extra tang and garnished with mint for color and flavor. Fruits like apples, bananas, mandarins, pineapple and watermelon should be served at room temperature, so keep that in mind!

How to cut fruit for charcuterie

I like to have a variety of shapes on my board. I used a star cutter to cut out my watermelon because this was for the Fourth of July, but any shape is fun! I created a skewer of watermelon balls, strawberries (I kept the green leaves on for appearance), blueberries and blackberries. Slice fruits like apples or pears thinly for fanning.

What’s the best way to arrange fruit on a charcuterie board

I always slice my apples and fan them out in sections. This allows for a beautiful presentation and practicality (as it makes it easier for your guests to pick them up!) Be sure to cut and add these at the end, so try and lessen as much oxidation as you can.

Adding fresh vegetables

Cold veggies are always a must on hot summer days. They’re light and filling without making you feel like you’re going to float in the pool. Some great ideas for veggies are sugar snap peas, mini cucumbers which I sliced into sticks rather than rounds, some mini heirloomtomatoes for color variety, and finally I included some slices of bell peppers (sliced horizontally) and tossed those on top for some shape variety! I just love the curves of those veggies.

How to Build a Beautiful Fruit Charcuterie Board (2)

Dips to include on a charcuterie board

For this board, just a couple dips are needed, if any. I included a beet hummus on here for the color (I mean, how stunning is that red?) but regular hummus is perfectly delicious. Place it in a small glass bowl and include it on the board. If you’d like to make the board just a little sweeter, you can include a yummy fruit dip like this cookie butter dip or some monster cookie dough dip in small bowls. It also depends on how much room you have left on your board! I tend to get a little carried away with the mains, so it doesn’t leave a lot of room left for multiple dips, but they’re not really needed on this beauty.

Choosing meats and cheeses

Yummy cured meats and a variety of cheeses are always the perfect compliment to fruits.They’re not the star of this board, but it doesn’t mean you have to leave them off completely!I chose some genoa salami and a good prosciutto, sliced thinly to compliment my fruits, and also included a smoked Gouda for a little for a little extra love.Choose a soft cheese like goat cheese and hard cheese like white cheddar that compliments the fruit on the board. Brie and blue cheese are always great choices, too.

A great way to present meats on your fruit charcuterie board is lay them in a beautiful way.I pretended like the prosciutto was like a ribbon and bunched the slices up in a ruffle manner. Fill in the empty spaceson the board with the salami. Fold the rounds in in half, and then in half again, and placed the open ends facing up, keeping them in place with the wheel of gouda and cherries. I think it adds an extra stylish touch to the board.

Selecting Wine pairings

When appropriate, include alcohol to your fruit charcuterie board experience. There are so many different combinations of wine and fruits that work well together, so really any wine you choose will go well with this board. Generally speaking, you want to pair bold-flavored meat and cheese with bold-flavored alcohol. A dry Prosecco always pairs well with strawberries, and my favoritewhite wine, Sauvignon Blanc, pairs well with grapes and melons. Really, the possibilities are endless!

Crackers & baguette slices:

I didn’t include any crackers on my board, but if you have more cheese and meat than I do, feel free to include them! I love thesewater crackers. They don’t have a lot of herbs or salt added so they won’t detract from all the other flavors here.

The finishing touches:

When putting all of these elements, you’ll want to alternate the meat, cheese and fruit.I started with placing my watermelon “pizza” in the middle. I like to frame my board with grapes, and place the rest around the middle.Don’t be afraid of overflow! I like a little spilling off the board.In this case, more is more.You want your board to be the star of the show, so the more dramatics, the better!As a finishing touch, garnishing with fresh herbs like sprigs of mint or edible flowers are always a good idea.

All in all, have fun with it! I can’t wait to see what you create!

If you love this post, be sure to check out how to host an epic s’mores party!

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