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Share a Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board for mid-day grazing before the main meal. Filled with a bounty of meat, cheese, and seasonal fruits, and holiday touches, this platter is as abundant as it is beautiful.
Meggan’s notes
As a classically-trained chef, I had an entire class devoted to sausage and cheese-making, cold appetizers, and cheese boards. We built the most epic grazing boards I’ve ever seen and served hundreds of guests at a time.
So when it comes to charcuterie boards, I’ve got plenty of ideas and all the tips and tricks to make sure you find success, too. I love a holiday snack board, and this Thanksgiving-themed charcuterie board is equal parts beauty and abundance.
Knowing that this board is preceding a very important dinner, I minimized the meats and sweets in favor of cheese, nuts, and seasonal produce. There’s a little something for everyone, but not too much of anything. Feel free to add your own special Thanksgiving touches and decor to keep things festive.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Meat and cheese: Since this snack board is served before a big turkey dinner, I feature just one type of meat. Choose your favorite or feel free to include more. For cheeses, I like to select at least one from each cheese category below and aim for four total.
- Spreads and sauce: Cranberry sauce is the perfect choice at Thanksgiving, but any jam or jelly will do. Or, consider honey, mustard, or even maple syrup.
- Fruit and vegetables: Choose something seasonal such as apples, pears, pomegranates, or persimmons. Toss sliced apples and pears in lemon juice before assembly to slow the oxidation process that causes the flesh to brown.
- Sweets: Maple-flavored cookies look so festive at Thanksgiving (Trader Joe’s also has a version). I also love candied nuts, caramel corn, or candy corn on the board.
Equipment notes
- Boards and platters: Wood, marble, slate; any flat, food-safe surface can act as a blank canvas for your Charcuterie Board. If you’re not certain that the surface is safe to serve food or easy to clean, line it with parchment paper.
- Dishes: Small bowls and cups can keep dips, jams, olives, and other ingredients that might roll or drip from invading the space of the other ingredients.
- Serving tools: Cheese knives, appetizer forks, small tongs, toothpicks, and tiny spoons ensure that the board stays as sanitary as possible and guarantee that guests can snag the items they like easily. No need to worry about investing in a matching set; a mix-and-match look can be stylish, too.
Props and snacks
You can source Thanksgiving decor and snacks locally when the season is right (Trader Joe’s always has a lot of interesting things). However, sometimes it’s easy and convenient to shop online. Here are the items I bought online:
Step-by-step instructions
- Select your board, then arrange your meats and cheese in separate sections.
- Add bowls of jams, honey, and olives to fill in larger holes.
- Fill in the gaps with fruit, veggies, nuts, and maple-leaf cookies. Layer and overlap when needed; step back to view the board from afar to spot any slim spots.
- Garnish with sprigs of fresh herbs, and tuck in forks, spreaders, tongs, and other utensils where needed.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: Your yield will vary depending on how much you buy which is determined by how many you are feeding. I usually plan on 1 to 2 ounces each of meat and cheese per person.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: Assemble the full board, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate up to one day in advance. Bring to room temperature right before the party starts.
- Midwestern heart: Try my Midwest Charcuterie Board for my favorite Wisconsin snacks like ham and pickle roll-ups, mini cheese balls, venison sausage, dill dip, and red pepper jelly with cream cheese.
Frequently Asked Questions
This depends on your budget, the appetites of you and your guests, as well as the other items you’re serving (if any). I usually plan on 1 to 2 ounces each of meat and cheese per person, especially if it’s a snack board that precedes a large meal such as Thanksgiving dinner.
Instead of just transferring cured meats from the package to the platter, try to highlight their textures and build dimension. But most importantly, you want the meat to be easy to access in reasonable portions. Consider rolling individual slices into spirals, forming salami roses, or creating prosciutto “rivers” in an “S” shape. Pinterest is a terrific source of inspiration.
1. Avoid overcrowding: You want it to look abundant but not messy. Be sure to refill it throughout your event, too.
2. Avoid fruits that turn brown: Bananas, pineapples, and melons can turn brown. Toss apples in lemon juice to keep them looking fresh.
3. Avoid cooked vegetables: Soft, mushy vegetables are unappealing on a platter. It’s okay to quickly blanch raw veggies (boil rapidly and shock in ice water) to tenderize and set their bright colors. Or, serve fresh or pickled veggies. Some vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, eggplant, and zucchini are best served cooked, so it’s best to avoid them here.
4. Avoid spicy foods: Some people, and many children, are sensitive to spicy foods and won’t know that they’ve eaten something until it’s too late. Spicy items or condiments can be served off the platter and carefully labeled.
5. Avoid choosing the same everything: You need a variety of colors, textures, and flavors on your board. Soft, hard, crunchy, chewy, sweet, savory. For the most interesting platter, choose a little bit of everything.
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Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board
Ingredients
Meat and cheese (see note 1):
- 8 ounces prosciutto or serrano ham
- 1 (8 ounce) round brie
- 1 (8 ounce) wedge Gouda or Fontina or Parmesan
- 1 (4 ounce) wedge Roquefort blue cheese
- 4 ounces Cheddar cheese cubed
Spreads (see note 2):
Fruits and veggies (see note 3):
- red grapes
- apple slices a mix of red and green (Gala apples brown the slowest)
- pears cored and quartered
- pomegranate seeds
- slender green beans blanched
Fillers and garnishes (see note 4):
- olives and baby pickles
- Maple cookies
- candied pecans
- fresh rosemary and sage leaves, for garnish
Instructions
- Select your board, then arrange your meats and cheese in separate sections.
- Add bowls of jams, honey, and olives to fill in larger holes.
- Fill in the gaps with fruit, veggies, nuts, and cookies. Layer and overlap when needed; step back to view the board from afar to spot any slim spots.
- Garnish with herbs, and tuck in forks, spreaders, tongs, and other utensils where needed.
Notes
- Meat and cheese: Since this snack board is served before a big turkey dinner, I feature just one type of meat. Choose your favorite or feel free to include more. For cheeses, I like to select at least one from each cheese category below and aim for four total.
- Meats: Serrano ham, prosciutto, country ham, Iberico ham, capicola, speck, bresaola, genoa, soppressata, finocchiona
- Soft cheese: Brie, feta, Camembert, chèvre, ricotta
- Semi-hard cheese: Fontina, muenster, Gouda, Havarti, Roquefort, gorgonzola, Manchego, Gruyère, Comté
- Firm cheese: Cheddar, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Romano
- Spreads and sauce: Cranberry sauce is the perfect choice at Thanksgiving, but any jam or jelly will do. Or, consider honey, mustard, or even maple syrup.
- Fruit and vegetables: Choose something seasonal such as apples, pears, pomegranates, or persimmons. Toss sliced apples and pears in lemon juice before assembly to slow the oxidation process that causes the flesh to brown.
- Sweets: Maple-flavored cookies look so festive at Thanksgiving (Trader Joe’s also has a version). I also love candied nuts, caramel corn, or candy corn on the board.
- Yield: Your yield will vary depending on how much you buy which is determined by how many you are feeding. I usually plan on 1 to 2 ounces each of meat and cheese per person.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
I love this! It looks absolutely beautiful, and I’ll be making this for my neighborhood fall gathering.