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Jan 20, 2024

20 Smart Charcuterie Board Ideas

Country Living editors select each product featured. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Why Trust Us? Assemble the perfect charcuterie board with these tasty additions! Hosting a party?

Country Living editors select each product featured. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Why Trust Us?

Assemble the perfect charcuterie board with these tasty additions!

Hosting a party? While you could set out a wide variety of hors d'oeuvres and appetizers for guests, one way to keep it simple is to simply arrange a charcuterie board and let people nibble as much as they want! A charcuterie board can be as informal or as fancy as you want, but the key to having a good one is variety—you want to make sure you've got enough on the board to give everyone something they'll like.

Half the fun is having just the right board or tray to display your food. Here are our favorites.

Now you just need to pick the food! Below, find some of our favorite charcuterie board ideas. From recipes for dips to smart suggestions for vegetables and cheeses, mix and match the ones that look best to you, and you'll have a charcuterie board that'll keep the party goers happy!

Don't forget to mix up some drinks!

Charcuterie means typically a platter with deli meats on it — though it certainly doesn't stop there!

These are generally the easiest thing to procure, and we recommend getting at least two or three kinds. Some of our favorites include prosciutto, capocollo, sopressata, salami, Spanish chorizo (which is cured. Mexican chorizo is a raw meat that needs to be cooked), and mortadella.

However, your local deli department or butcher should be able to walk you through—and let you taste samples of—what they have, to help you decide.

Thinly sliced, these are easy to arrange in folds, curls, or piles, making them both pretty and easy for guests to grab one at a time.

Another easy-and-expected addition to any snack board: some fresh vegetables and a good thing to dip them in! Peppers, carrots, and celery are always popular. Radishes with their stems are pretty, and add crunch.

A classic Benedictine spread (mixing mayo, cream cheese, lemon juice, and dill) is a good go-with-anything dip.

Get the recipe for Benedictine Spread.

Want to up the ante a little? Try giving your veggies a quick bath in a pickling solution!

Carrots, okra, peppers, even green beans and tomatoes can be pickled a day or two ahead for eating directly, or for dipping.

And pimento cheese (a.k.a. "the caviar of the South") is a must-have spread for bread or crackers!

Get the recipe for Quick Refrigerator Pickles.

Get the recipe for Pimento Cheese.

Rillettes—an old-fashioned method of preserving meat in fat or cream—turn out to be one of those impossibly tasty cracker toppings.

Make this and you'll be pestered for the recipe.

Get the recipe for Salmon Rillets.

A key to any good charcuterie board is variety. You don't want all salty and savory items.

A couple bunches of fresh grapes add both beauty and flavor. If you want to fancy up the bunch a little, seek out flavorful and interesting looking varieties like Muscadine, Concord, Moon Drop, or Canadice.

If red pepper slices and carrot sticks seem a little ho-hum, consider upping your crunchy vegetable spread with some curiosities, such as slices of watermelon beets, Romanesco broccoli (which looks green and spiny), purple cauliflower, English peas, and purple carrots.

Cap it all off with a minty, lemony, white bean dip.

Get the recipe for White Bean-and-Pea Dip.

Marinate your favorite sliced mushrooms in this mix of oil, vinegar, maple syrup, and herbs for a few days, and then set them out in a little bowl or jar. They're a fun companion to olives!

Get the recipe for Marinated Mushrooms.

If you're pressed for time, or just don't want to run all over the place seeking out ingredients, skip the work and have one delivered!

This fully arranged charcuterie board from Boarderie serves 9-11 people and is sold right from our site. Check out other options here.

Fill in spaces on the board with a few handfuls of spiced nuts—you can go with just one kind, like pecans, or a few different flavors. Here are two easy homemade recipes that we love.

Get the recipe for Spicy Roasted Pecans.

Get the recipe for Crunchy Sweet & Spicy Coated Nuts.

Olives are a must-have on any charcuterie board, but they can't be just any old olive. Cocktail olives tend to be too tart, and while black olives are great on pizza, they don't have the right vibe for a board.

Castelvetrano olives are mild and buttery, so they pair very well with cheese, crackers, and meats of all kind. Be sure to set out an empty bowl for keeping pits!

Cheese is one of the most important parts of a charcuterie board. You want a variety to choose from, but you're also looking for each one to have some wide appeal. A stinky or divisive cheese is out of place.

Read on for a few suggestions.

This Beemster X.O. Aged Gouda is a delicious hard cheese that works well as a cracker topper. It's got a mild, nutty taste with small crunchy bits that are a surprising textural delight.

It never hurts to have something familiar on the board, that you can guarantee will be a hit.

Cabot's high-quality Extra Sharp Cheddar is a trusty choice.

To give guests something a little fun and flavor-forward, put a soft goat cheese out.

Yes, you could just buy a log of whatever goat cheese is at the store, but if you want to really knock their socks off, get some of Cypress Grove's Humboldt Fog Cheese.

It's an aged cheese that is creamy on the outside (like Brie), but with some crumbly, more traditional goat cheese texture on the inside. The edible rind is also mild, so that every bite is like a new taste.

For soft cheese fans, you simply have to have at least a wedge or two of Brie available. And a great crowd-pleasing one is Marin French Triple Creme Brie.

The triple cream is no joke—this can taste like the cheese equivalent of putting heavy cream in your coffee. It's beyond decadent.

Along with a loaf of fresh bread, crackers are a big category for your charcuterie board. It's not uncommon to have two or even three varieties.

Extra points if one of those is homemade!

Get the recipe for Buttermilk Crackers.

We love these lightly salted sourdough crackers both for their mild, goes-with-everything flavor, and for their firm structure, which can be scooped through even a pimento cheese without falling apart.

Like tiny slices of fruit bread, these flavorful crackers offer a bit of sweetness, making them a good contrast to other crackers on the plate.

Set next to the board, these breadsticks are fun for straightforward munching, or as a vehicle for some dip.

Get the recipe for Grissini with Three Toppings.

These cute little pickles are a popular option. Set them out in a little bowl.

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