charcuterie board with honey on a patio table

How To

Build a Charcuterie Board

Charcuterie is one of our favorite ways to use our raw honeys. In this guide, we'll go over the basics of how to build a cheese and meat platter to please any crowd.

Let the board speak for itself

Creating Beautiful Charcuterie

Creating a delicious and eye-catching charcuterie board is actually a lot easier than you might think - and it doesn't require an eye for design or special knowledge. If you follow our guidelines for how to choose and pair cheeses and meats below, you're already well on your way to a delectable and satisfying spread.

To physically build your board, start with the foundation: the cheese. Then add your meats and top with sundries like nuts, olives, fruits, and veg. To make it more aesthetically pleasing, consider chunking your cheese so the board isn't built around large blocks of cheese. And, of course, if you want to be fancy you can experiment with different ways of folding the meats or use small dishes and jars for your extras. That said, it is our studied opinion that charcuterie boards are always made bee-u-tea-ful with the addition of warm, glistening honey.

Choose Your Cheeses

Select one from each Category

These spreadable cheeses are a must for us on charcuterie boards, especially paired with a dark honey like Black Forest or Sourwood.
Soft cheeses include:
Brie, Camembert, triple cream, burrata, fresh ricotta, goat cheese, etc.
Do you want sheep, goat, or cow? All of the above? Sometimes going to the cheese counter or display can feel like a bit of a gamble if they're not offering samples. Below are some quick guides for how the different milks influence the flavor of cheese!
Sheep's Milk Cheeses
Cheese made with sheep's milk tends to be creamy with tangy, earthy flavors and can sometimes have a strong smell. Sheep's milk cheese has a higher fat and protein content, giving it a full and creamy mouthfeel.
Cow's Milk Cheeses
The most mild of the milks, cow's milk cheeses are generally more mellow in flavor with a smooth texture. With age, cow's milk cheeses will become more tangy and less mild.
Goat's Milk Cheeses
Goat's milk cheeses tend to be tart and tangy with a distinct earthiness, and they are usually soft and spreadable. The distinct flavor and aroma of goat cheese comes mainly from the fatty acids in this type of milk, making it easily distinguishable from sheep's or cow's milk cheese.

Choose Your Meats

Select One from Each Category

Prosciutto is probably the most famous and readily available dry-cured pork for charcuterie, but bee on the lookout for speck, jamón serrano, and lonzino if you want to take your board to the next level.
These salty meats are excellent with most cheeses and honeys, but especially with softer cheeses.

Choose Your Sundries

No Formula for this one - go with your gut!

Using seasonal fruits on your charcuterie board not only helps round out the nutritional profile but also adds delicious flavor and texture. In the late summer and early fall, for example, figs are delectable with Brie or Camembert!

Choose Your Honeys

Choose 2 to 3

Often more delicate and mild in flavor, these honeys are universally pleasing and easy to pair. If you have a particularly pungent cheese, look for a lighter honey like Alfalfa, Tupelo, or Acacia.
The darker the honey, the more minerals and enzymes, and also the more robust the flavor. This can sometimes make darker honeys tricky to pair on your charcuterie board - but boy is the payoff worth it when you do! For dark honeys with a molasses and fig flavor profile (like Black Forest), pair them with soft cheeses. If your dark honey has a very strong flavor (like Italian Chestnut), stick to semi-soft mild cheeses like fontina.