A charcuterie board is a dish made from cured, smoked, or boiled meats. It typically consists of meats and cheeses paired with other items like crackers, nuts, and pickles.
Charcuterie boards make a great snack or appetizer because they are easy to prepare yet look impressive when presented. Let’s create the perfect festive New Year’s charcuterie board for your next party!
You can jump to recipe or scroll down to see video below.
To begin, select an assortment of cured meats such as salami, prosciutto or pepperoni along with an array of cheeses like cheddar, brie or blue cheese. Add some color with fruits like figs or berries as well as olives and pickles for tanginess. For this board, we went with pomegranate seeds since it adds a really nice POP! of color to the board.
Ingredients
- handful of pomegranate arils
- handful of fresh blueberries
- 2-4 ounces of an assortment of: pepperoni, salami, and ham
- small crackers, broken up
- small handful of red or green grapes
- 3-6 meat sticks, cut in half
- cheddar cheese, cubed
- 2 Babybel
- 1 medium to large round brie
- (optional) pretzel sticks, broken into 1-inch sections
- (optional) fuet sausage
Equipment Needed
- toothpicks, for serving
- wooden cutting board such as this one, 8×17 Wood Cutting Board
This is a great size for a small Christmas tree shaped charcuterie board
A wooden cutting board, around the size of 8″ x 17″ ISH, would be perfect for this Christmas tree. If you are using a larger board, you might need to double the ingredients in order to accommodate a larger tree – otherwise your board will look funny with a tiny Christmas tree in the middle.
But no worries, if you have too much room on your charcuterie board, you can make some salami flowers to fill in the spaces, as well as some nuts, seeds, dips, sauces to fill in the rest of the spaces, etc…. See how to make a salami flower in our other article.
Little white ceramic bowls of guacamole and raspberry or strawberry jam will add a great color pop to this holiday themed charcuterie!
Dark wood such as walnut wood, is preferred over blondes like maple. For this board I couldn’t find a dark colored one at my house at the time, but one like this would look awesome.
Making a larger tree? Try this dark colored walnut wood on Amazon. It’s made in Virginia!
To Make this New Year’s Eve Charcuterie Board:
1. Start at the bottom of the Christmas tree
This is optional, but if you want a “base” of the Christmas tree, start with a handful of 1-inch sections of broken up pretzel sticks.
2. Make two rows with blueberries
Add around two rows of blueberries that span almost the width of your board – leave about 1-inch on each side. Hint: if you’re planning on moving this board around, add a thin layer of honey where the blueberries are so it stays in place. Your guests wouldn’t mind the honey dipped blueberries when they’re eating it!
3. Add two rows of meat sticks
Add two rows of meat sticks over the blueberries as you go “up” the tree. Make this one around the same length – we’ll start decreasing the width on the next step.
4. Cheddar cubes, Babybel and Brie
Next center the brie right and to the left and right of it, add a babybel on each side. Fill in with cheddar cubes and top with some grapes for a nice pop of color. Make the width slightly shorter than the previous step.
5. Ham, pepperoni, and salami
Quarter-fold slices of ham, pepperoni, and salami and line them across the in 3 layers. Feel free to mix them up, or do them in three rows. Make the width slightly narrower than the last step.
6. Add some fuet sausage slices if you have it
If you don’t have fuet sausages skip to the next step. This type of sausage looks great on charcuteries due to their unique look. Add some slices of these standing up (see picture) and hold them in place by adding pomegranate arils.
7. 3-5 rows of pomegranate arils
Add 3-5 rows of pomegranate arils (seeds). Use more if you have the room for it, we’re almost at the top of the Christmas tree, so if you’re not close to the top third of the board add more or create an additional layer of cheddar cubes (they take up room).
8. Broken crackers
For an interesting look add broken up crackers that is deep yellow or orange in color, of you can try cheese here – hand torn for a very interesting look!
9. Fill to the top with pomegranate arils
Create the final shape of the Christmas tree with the remaining pomegranate arils. Top the Christmas tree with a pre-cut star shaped cheddar.
10. Fill in remaining spaces
You can fill in the remaining spaces with pomegranate arils, or top it with a couple more grapes or blueberries. Just remember to add a thin layer of honey to so they remain in place if you’re planning on carrying your charcuterie around.
Garnish with sprigs of wintery herbs such as rosemary. You can also try entire display, placed on food-safe decorative parchment paper such as these (on Amazon).
Other interesting items you can try:
- Salami roses to fill in the spaces – see how to make a salami meat flower
- Edible flowers
- Breadsticks
- Chocolate covered fruits or nuts
- Jams, spreads, sauces, and dips such as guacamole, hummus, raspberry jam, chocolate sauce, etc…
- Seeds, or candied nuts such as candied walnuts or candied almonds
