Tips for Making a Delicious Seasonal Charcuterie Board

When it comes to making a charcuterie board that’s delicious and enjoyable, there is no real right or wrong. But, there are some general guidelines you can follow to knock it out of the park with a spread that’s exciting and well-balanced.

The Secret to Making the Best Charcuterie Board

When selecting products, whether it be cheese, meat, or other goodies, try to incorporate a variety of flavours and textures. This is the secret to optimizing the overall experience your board creates.

What Cheese Should I Use in My Charcuterie Board?

Keeping the above charcuterie board golden rule in mind, try to select cheeses from a few of the following categories:

  1. Spreadable: Something like a Boursin or a handmade Farm Boy Cheese Ball. A goat cheese is also another great option – something like a goat cheese log or a spreadable goat cheese.
  2. Soft: Like a soft ripened cheese (Brie, Camembert). Although not as relevant for fall, something like bocconcini or buffalo mozzarella can be a nice, fresh option in warmer months.
  3. Wash Rind: Like Oka, Tete a Papineau-Muenster, etc.
  4. Semi-Firm: Like cheddar, Swiss, havarti, or Wensleydale.
  5. Firm: Like Gouda, clothbound cheddar, Comté, or Asiago.
  6. Blue: Depending on your audience’s taste preferences, you could opt for a softer tasting blue like a Cambozola, or something a bit stronger like a Danish blue or gorgonzola.

Including a seasonally flavoured cheese can add a nice touch to your charcuterie board; just be careful not to overdo it. For a fall-inspired charcuterie board, try adding in a cheese with pumpkin or apple.

Pro Tip: On a board with 3-4 cheese varieties, stick to 1 flavoured cheese.  On ones with 5-6 options, stick to 2 flavoured cheeses.

How Many Cheeses Should I Use?

Try to incorporate anywhere from 3-6 cheeses, depending on the size of the board and amount of people who will be eating.

What Meat Should I Add to My Charcuterie Board?

If you’d like to add cured meats to your spread, choose some options with different flavours (i.e. spicy, mild, garlic). We’d recommend any of the following: prosciutto, salami, kolbassa, or pepperette bites (e.g. Spanish Fuet or Chorizo).

You could also go for a pâté that includes seasonal ingredients to add textural variety to your meat selections. You can find pâtés made with turkey, pork, venison, and more!

What Fruit Should I Choose?

Choose fruits for your board that are in season (they’ll taste better) to help cleanse the palate before moving on to other items. For fall, we love apples, plums, oranges, pears, dried cranberries, and grapes. You can also select cheeses and jellies that incorporate some of these fruits to create a more seasonally-inspired board.

Selecting Crackers, Spreads & More

Opt for at least 2 cracker options: something plain, like Farm Boy Double Baked Sea Salt Pita Crackers or Water Crackers, and something with a heightened flavour profile, like our Artisan Crackers. A fresh baguette is also a great option.

Include a mix of nuts, jelly, and antipasti to tie everything in your board together. Try almonds, walnuts, or cashews, choose a jelly that aligns with the flavours of your cheeses, and throw in pickled veggies or stuffed olives.

How We’d Build a Fall-Inspired Charcuterie Board

To put our tips into action and inspire your next spread, here are the things we’d use to create a flavourful autumnal charcuterie board.

FYI: Need a charcuterie board? Some of our stores carry beautiful wooden boards like the live-edge one we used in our spread above. You can check your local Farm Boy’s Deli Shop to see if they have any available.

Cheese 

  1. Farm Boy™ Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball
  2. Farm Boy™ Double Cream Brie
  3. Farm Boy™ Fig Goat’s Milk Cheese log
  4. 1057 Scottish Cheddar
  5. Beemster Pumpkin Spiced Gouda OR Coombe Castle Pear & Apple Wensleydale

Fruit, Nuts & Other Antipasti

  1. Local Ontario apples
  2. Local Ontario pears
  3. Grapes
  4. Almonds & walnuts 
  5. Kalamata pitted olives
  6. Farm Boy™ Sundried Tomatoes
  7. Farm Boy™ Almond Stuffed Green Olives

Crackers

  1. Farm Boy™ Water Crackers
  2. Farm Boy™ Artisan Cashew & Cranberry Crackers

Spreads

  1. Farm Boy™ Tangerine & Red Chili Jelly
  2. Farm Boy™ Pure Ontario Honey

Meat

  1. Farm Boy™ Hot Spianata Salami
  2. Farm Boy™ Coppa
  3. Farm Boy™ Meat Pâté de Campagne with Cognac
  4. Farm Boy™ Spanish Fuet Bites

Happy board building!

For other fall-inspired recipes, cooking inspiration, and more, check out our Falling for Harvest page!

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