The art of designing a good charcuterie board
The twin secrets to a successful charcuterie board, according to Tom Bellemore, are putting a variety of contrasting flavors and textures on a board, and making it pretty.
Bellemore, who with his wife, Leah, owns Vine 32 (Bedford Square, 25 S. River Road, Bedford, 935-8464, vinethirtytwo.com), a wine and small-bites bar, loves the way wine tastes completely different when it’s paired with different foods. Which is why charcuterie boards are such a natural way of serving food in a wine bar. Each bite of food on the board brings out different notes in a wine, which make contrast so important.
“We include a spread of cured meats, cheeses, crackers, peak fruit, some jams and tapas,” he said.
“This,” Bellemore said, indicating a cold cut on one of his charcuterie boards, “is a peppered salami. Normally we’re going to have [a variety]. We get some chorizo in there; we have prosciutto, cheeses — we’ve got truffle cheddar and sweet onion cheddar. We kind of mix and match everything.”
“This is a soppressata [a type of dried Calabrian salami from southwestern Italy],” he said, “and this is wild boar sausage. It’s one of our favorites, that’s always selling out. We like to slice it super-thin, one or one and a half [millimeters thick]. The weight’s the same, but it looks really good on a board.”
Fatty, spicy meats will bring out one set of flavors from a wine. Sharp, acidic flavors will bring out completely different characteristics. “We always have pickled vegetables,” Bellemore said. “That’s a must for me. Have you ever had caper berries? I found out about caper berries when we opened this place. They look appealing and they taste amazing! I don’t understand why people don’t use them in a dirty martini.”
Dried fruits and nuts are good choices for a board too, Bellemore said. The fruits bring sweetness, tang and a little chewiness, and nuts bring a crunchy element, salt and some fat. But the stars of a charcuterie board, he said, are the cheeses.
“Here is some manchego [a slightly sweet sheep’s milk cheese from Spain], he said, handing over a small triangle of cheese, “and this is smoked Gouda; it’s a huge favorite. This one has black truffles in it.”
Regardless of what foods go on a charcuterie board, Bellemore said, it has to be visually appealing. “It’s important to stay creative,” he said. “During the Christmas and Thanksgiving months, my wife will put rosemary [on a board] and some cranberries. She puts together some festive blends to give it a feeling that’s almost like an art piece”
Charcuterie boards are extremely flexible, Bellemore said; they can be adapted to almost any size for a given group.
“We have a big 6-foot plank that’s from the same, our same board vendor,” he said, “but for a party of 60 people. It takes us two hours to put it together. So picture a regular [charcuterie] board on steroids. We’ll bring it out for a private event, so the guests are always grazing. We offer a variety of sizes.”
Especially around the holidays, when people are feeling stressed, a charcuterie board is a thoughtful gift, Bellemore said.
“At the end of a day, you get home and you’re hungry, you don’t want to think too hard. Maybe there’s leftovers, maybe there’s not — whatever. You can have a drink with your wife or your partner or whatever. It’d be nice if there was a small little thing all prepped. And then while you’re talking and decompressing, you can have some snacks.”
Vine 32
Vine 32 Wine and Graze Bar (Bedford Square, 25 S. River Road, Bedford, 935-8464, vinethirtytwo.com) serves charcuterie boards to dine-in customers or will prepare custom boards for delivery. A fully loaded board runs anywhere from $85, which feeds six to nine people, to $125, which serves 10 to 12.
It also hosts regular charcuterie board workshops to teach participants how to put together their own. Visit vinethirtytwo.com/charcuterieclasses.