Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board

A bountiful Thanksgiving charcuterie cheeseboard fill with colorful meats, cheeses nuts and more for Thanksgiving.

5 from 2 votes

Create a gorgeous easy Thanksgiving charcuterie board filled with your favorite sliced meats, an assortment of cheeses, crackers, fruit, nuts, and a few and sugary treats. A Fall cheeseboard is so easy to put together for Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving or Fall gatherings. Make for an after-school snack board for kids, or to host a happy hour for friends with simple appetizers and drinks.

Prep Time30

Cook Time0

Total Time30

Course: Appetizers, Dips, & Snacks

Cuisine: American

Keyword: thanksgiving appetizers, Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board, Thanksgiving Cheeseboard, Thanksgiving recipes

Servings:

Calories: 283kcal

Author: Lisa Hatfield

Equipment

Cheese Knife Set
Fall & Thanksgiving Cookie Cutters
Small Bowls

Ingredients

8 ounces round brie wheel
8 ounces soft cheese (goat cheese, camembert)
8 whole hard cheese
12 ounces assorted crackers
1 cup pistachio nuts
8 ounces sliced salami
1 whole French baguette sliced for crostini
12 ounces marinated mozzarella balls
12 ounces marinated olives
4 ounces dried apricots
1 tablespoon honey, fig jam
1 whole sliced apples or pears
1 cup candied pecans
12 whole mini cookies or cakes; waffle crisps, macarons, madelienes

Instructions

How To Design A Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board Traditional Meat is a star of a perfect charcuterie board. Start with sausages and salami both presliced and whole. Meats like prosciutto, ham, and soppressata are also classic additions. You can slice, cube, wrap, fold, stack, or serve meats in many designs like the salami roses you see all over the internet!
Dips or a finger food item are a nice addition! Choose ones that are premade or can be made a day ahead and prepare those first.
Choose some focal points for larger items and place the larger items like wheels of brie or salami roses on first. Those are your anchor points and work in odd numbers with large focal points.
Empty Spots can be filled in with small nuts, candies, or crackers. Add Different Textures by trying different kinds of crackers, cheeses, meats nuts and cut them all in various ways.
Design Top Tip is to add things in small piles, and add other things in equal parts in various patterns like stacks or neat rows. The variation of textures is pleasing to the eye.
Add 1-2 Hard cheeses sliced into thin triangles, small cubes, broken into chunks, or served in small wedges with cheese knives for people to slice their own. I found one that was a rust Fall color and a tri-color that looked like the colors of candy corn! I got my cheeses from a Southern California Trader Joe's, but most grocery stores carry a nice variety these days.
Add 1-2 Semi Soft Cheeses like brie can be transformed into a centerpiece on your board by cutting out the center using a small cookie cutter. I used a pumpkin shape and filled the center with finely diced dried apricots and a good drizzle of honey. Other semi-soft cheeses like goat cheese or camembert are really popular and add a nice variety.
Fruits & Herbs are great options try some dark color purple grapes or sprinkle some pomegranate seeds on top of a piece of soft cheese like brie. Fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme sprigs can add a lot of dimension and character.
Food Safety is important, cheeses get better at room temperature for up to 4 hours, but you will want to rechill meats like sliced salami after 2 hours to keep it food safe. Also, did you know you can freeze leftover charcuterie meats? You can pre-cut your cheese and meats the day before and assemble the day before and keep them chilled in small containers. Then put your tray together the morning of your party and pull it out when guest arrive!
Different Ways To Slice Charcuterie Meats
-Cut salami into small square cubes
-Make salami roses, they are so easy and such a fun thing on your board!
-Fold sliced meats in half and fold those ends in, then push two on short skewers, you can trim the skewers short for a pretty look.
-Fold sliced meats into quarters and stack 3 on a skewer, and cut the excess bamboo skewer off.
Creative Ways To Slice Cheese
-Use a fork and break off rustic chunks, I did this on the English white cheddar
-Thinly slice a triangle wedge of cheese and stack the pieces going in opposite directions, or lay all pointing in same direction
-Cut cheese blocks into small square cubes for your cheese board
-Use small seasonal cookie cutters to get different shapes
-Cut a shape out of a wheel of brie with a cookie cutter and fill the center
-Roll the cutout portion of brie into crushed cracker crumbs, I used cheddar cheese crackers
-Use 3D cookie cutters and cut shapes out of sliced cheese, these 3D cookie cutters will impress

Video

Notes

What To Use For Your Board?

a large cutting board will work really well, just give it a good clean. They can be round, square, or rectangular in shape.
an extra large board is also fun for a party, like a long 4' grazing board to put down the center of a long table.
a large tray, use black, orange, purple, or green! I used a round tray with a black metal rim. The sides of this tray helped to hold the stacks of crackers upright and other items, but this is totally optional.

How To Make Salami Roses

Buy good sliced pepperoni or sliced salami.
Use a smaller glass like a wine goblet or champagne flute.
Layer the salami around the edge of the glass pressing and folding them down as you go.
Go round and round adding more layers and pushing them down into the center.
Flip the glass upside down, and place it down on a plate to see your beautiful salami rose! You can make these a day ahead and store them flat in a zip-top bag on a small plate until you are ready to assemble your board.

Party Planning for the number of guests, and have everything ready to go before your party! You can cut the cheeses the day before, then assemble the board in about 15 minutes.

Use 2-3 Small Bowls that are black, orange, or white and round or shaped like pumpkins to serve drippy things like marinated olives or mozzarella balls.

Real Flowers, snip a few in dark colors like orange or purple daisies, they add a real touch of whimsy, and you can tuck them in at the end.

Small Cookie Cutters to cut sliced cheese in shapes like pumpkins, leaves, or turkeys. Stack up the cutout cheese, and these are fun for kids.

Have a Small Spoon for Dips to make it easier to serve and eat. Put out Small Spreader Knives for dips and cracker spreads. A small container of Appetizer Picks to lift items like marinated mozzarella or olives out of small bowls onto plates.

Themed Charcuterie Boards are all the rage, try a movie night themed snacks board, so many people make these with the new movie releases at Thanksgiving.

Classic Cheese Board Knife Set including a good cheese knife, slicer, fork, and or dip spreaders are a great way to slice and cut items on your board either ahead of time or let your guests do the honors.

Nutrition