The 3-3-3-3 Rule for Building a Charcuterie Board

“A SIMPLE GUIDELINE FOR BUILDING A WELL BALANCED BOARD”.

If you are unfamiliar with building charcuterie boards or grazings boards it can be a little daunting on where to begin, or even knowing what you need to buy to put a deliciously balanced one together. A simple guideline ratio that we like to follow is 3-3-3-3.

3-3-3-3

A simple rule of thumb is three types of cured meat, three cheeses, three types of carbohydrate and three accompaniments.

HERE’S THE BREAKDOWN

Choose three types of cured meat, and keep the flavours and textures different and interesting. Opting for a salami will give you boldness of flavour and a firm texture, a few slices of a whole muscle meat like our Hartgrove Coppa or Dorset Bresaola will give you melt in the mouth texture and a notes of sweetness, followed by something different, like our Dorset Nduja as a spreadable salami, or chunks of chorizo for something with more bite and spice.

Next choose your cheeses. Again we recommend a variety of types to add to the eatability of your board and keeping each mouthful interesting. A traditional cheddar ticks the box for a traditional cows milk cheese, whilst a hard goats milk cheese or soft brie or a blue means you tick all the boxes in terms of complexity of flavour profiles. We particularly enjoy Godminster Traditional Cheddar and Dorset Blue Vinny to name drop a couple of local and passionate cheesemongers.

The carbs, well the list is endless really, something starchy is great like slices of toasted baguette, whilst crackers and breadsticks are great if you want to add crunch. Sweetmeal biscuits are perfect paired with brie and our Hargrove Coppa, and new age alternatives like seaweed thins and salted rice crackers can keep things interesting.

Finally, the accompaniments. Olives, nuts, pickles, chutneys, fruit (fresh or dried), vinegars and more. The list could go on but our tip is to choose something sweet, something salty, and something deepy savoury or umami. Roasted nuts, balsamic vinegar and spicy tomato chutney are our go-to’s. We really enjoy the range of rice crackers and olives from Mr Filbert’s, as well as vinegars from Fussels to mention a few.

We have recently launched our Nduja Relish, which is the best of both worlds when thinking about 3-3-3-3, you get the deep flavour and spice from our Dorset Nduja with the sweetness from the addition of tomatoes, brown sugar and red wine vinegar to macerate this award winning cured meat in to a relish.