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For decades, immersed in studying, working, learning, and teaching in the craft of meat curing, now sharing his passion with you through eat cured meat online resource.
When you’re putting together a charcuterie board, it’s really down to how you want to present it, whether you use a wooden board or something else.
Of course, when you go online, all these charcuterie pictures are on wooden boards, but there are a lot of alternatives out there.
Some even have interesting properties like slate, So I hope to give you some ideas and/or inspiration to figure out whether you need to get a wooden board or use something else for your charcuterie.
Just use a plate and attractively arrange the food; it can make a big difference when you fold the salami or cured meat in an organized way, too.
Charcuterie With or Without a Board
I will go over traditional and modern and also have a selection of pictures for inspiration.
There is a reason why food seems more appealing in a restaurant; it’s often because some chefs get trained on how to ‘plate’ food in an appealing fashion.
This completely applies to putting together a charcuterie (I wrote about why charcuterie popular) board together as.
Since I’m all about charcuterie and cured meats for me, the presentation makes a big difference.
But I’ve had success using bits of planks of wood sanded little or decorative driftwood found at the beach. What I’m trying to say is you really don’t need to get caught up with specifics and to be honest.
But also think about the out-of-the-box ideas you can use! First, let’s go over the classical approach.
Traditional Charcuterie Board
Some of the classic traditional charcuterie boards have a certain shape. Here are a few pictures if you are after super classic – French or Italian.
If you want to go really, really traditional, Frank charcuterie has a round design with a handle like this.
Antipasti and Italians are also renowned for their salumi (whole muscle dry cured meat) pre-dinner treats.
This was a specialist of an Umbrian black pig, a kind of local but wild—intensive and delicious cured meat.
Many of these places serve meat on plates or simple wooden boards.
Definitely don’t be limited by the idea of what you can use!
Here is a bit more I wrote on ‘traditional’ charcuterie boards!
Options for Board
Slate
Slate is an interesting one because it seems to be one of the only types of presentation boards that’s dishwasher safe apart from a normal dishwasher safe. Not wooden boards should go in a dishwasher, of course.
The other cool thing is you can use chalk to write stuff, making it easy to remember those complicated names for various crazy cheeses.
The only downside is that you must be careful because, like a plate, the slate will smash easily if you drop it. One advantage of the wood board is that you may have a big mess but no smashed board on the ground.
Wood Variations
Homegrown and Home Made the most of it!
You see them a lot around my website but I do love my olive wood, it’s got emotional aspects since 3 of the boards we bought in Itlay whilst traveling for months across the regions.
The complexity of the wood and the idea that you are dealing with wood that is 100, 200, sometimes 500 years old. It’s incredible to see the number of olive trees around Italy.
From what I heard, Just about all the different regions are covered in them, and I’m pretty sure many of them do not get harvested anymore.
Granite
You have to be a bit careful of the acidic side of things on the granite board; tomatoes or vinegary things like pickles actually stain granite board.
It sounds like some obvious advice, but don’t get too hung up on having a charcuterie board to present. Yes, the wow factor can be a thing, but it’s more about the quality of the products you put on the board than the actual board.
And many of the charcuterie (yes you can make them ahead of time) boards you see on Pinterest or other social media places are A – professional photographers or B – Food Stylists!
Some of these pictures are styled.
And actually nothing like what you see in Italy or France.
Marble
Nice Plate
As you saw above, a nice plate can still look nice.
Inspiration Photos
