What does charcuterie mean anyway? Firstly, let’s get the pronunciation down: “sharkooduhree.” It is a French word and basically means “cooked meat.” You may find a “charcuterie plate” on the menus of quality restaurants, but there is no reason why you can’t enjoy one right from your own home with those you love. So then what is an antipasti plate or spread? Antipasti is Italian and really just means “before the meal,” and typically includes cured meats, cheeses and pickled vegetables. We are NOT experts, but you could use “charcuterie” when referring to your meats and “antipasti” when referring to your entire spread of goodies. However you refer to it, people absolutely LOVE to have options when eating, and a lovely charcuterie board or antipasti spread like this is the epitome of offering choices. You will be hailed for your genius and generosity.
Let’s talk about the cheese for a sec – you typically want a couple of options for hard cheeses and a couple soft. The most crowd-pleasing hard cheeses are a sharp cheddar-like cheese, such as Dubliner, and a parmesan. In the soft-cheese department, we are talking brie (you can eat the rind) and goat cheese. Above you will find a brie, a cranberry goat, and an Italian truffle cheese (semi-soft). The hard cheeses are Dubliner and an extra-sharp orange cheddar (because your picky eaters will identify with the orange cheese and know it equals cheddar. Tee-hee-hee). We love Trader Joe’s for cheeses and meats. The meat you see here is a multi-pack, consisting of prosciutto and 2 different salamis. We love the peasant bread and baguettes from Costco. We usually toast some and leave some soft.
Your condiments are important because they allow people to individualize their choices even more, and people love to see which cheeses and meats taste best with which condiment. We like to have a good, whole-grain mustard, a preserve, such as cherry or raspberry, at least one olive choice, and a fresh or dried fruit, like Concord or Thomas grapes or dried currants (pictured above). Pickled vegetables such as jarred artichokes or peperoncinis make lovely additions. All the flavors these condiments contribute can be mixed and matched to make for fantastic sweet and salty combinations – a couple of our favorite combos are brie with preserves, and prosciutto with dubliner and mustard.
A nice, festive background is always pleasant. For our get-together, we had guests grab something to munch on in the backyard before it got too dark and cold, then we came inside for hot soup. This star battery-operated light fixture provided a delicate glow as the sun went down, and this fresh boxwood wreath and fresh holly (both from Trader Joe’s) lent some freshness and holiday cheer. This Himalayan salt board came from Trader Joe’s as well, by-the-way, and makes for beautiful presentation. You can heat it and serve things hot on it, or chill at (as we did here) to keep your meats cooler for longer. Genius.
