Christmas Charcuterie Board

A Christmas menu does not always have to be pompous and consists of many courses! A deliciously assorted Christmas charcuterie board pleases the whole family and is prepared very quickly!

With homemade egg salad spread, chickpea spread, and Liptauer cheese, an exquisite variety of meats and cheeses, nuts, and vegetables, this easy charcuterie board is an experience for the eyes and the palate.

Accompany it with a delicious glass of red wine and different kinds of bread, and the Christmas dinner can begin!

As a scrumptious dessert, we will spoil you with a delicious dark chocolate mousse if there is still room in the stomach.

This charcuterie board is the ideal Christmas dinner menu for those who do not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen but still want to spoil their loved ones with an enchanting meal!

If it shouldn't be Christmas themed, get some inspiration from Kelly for a simple charcuterie board!

🥘 Ingredients

• Egg salad spread - homemade or purchased
• Liptauer cheese spread - homemade or purchased
• Optional: Hummus - homemade or purchased
• Pickles
• Olives - green, without pit
• Cucumber - sliced
• Cherry tomatoes
• Bell pepper - sliced
• Camembert
• Saint Severin or Saint Albray cheese
• Babybel or small goat cheese wheels
• Salted butter
• Salami - Ideally, you use here different varieties of salami. Like chili salami, garlic and Parmesan salami, to the classics like the Milanese salami.
• Ham
• Pork sausage
• Prosciutto - San Daniele or Serrano are highly recommended.
• Salted almonds
• Cashew nuts
• Different types of crackers
• Pignolia - for the snowman eyes
• Star anise and fresh rosemary for decoration
• Bread and rolls

See the recipe card for quantities.

🔪 Instructions

Step 1 - Selection of ingredients

What kind of cheese, vegetables, and decoration depend significantly on the desired image you want to represent with this charcuterie board.

Since we quickly opted for the snowman, it was clear that we would need different-sized round cheeses. Also, we quickly selected rosemary as a "broom" for the snowman.

Since our little daughter could be present for the first time at Christmas dinner last year, we needed to take additional ingredients she liked.

So we added the pork sausage and the Saint Albray cheese because she likes both very much.

Step 2 - the snowman

Place the charcuterie tray on the kitchen table. In the case of the snowman charcuterie board, we opted for a light-colored wooden board and started assembling the snowman.

• We made the snowman's body and head from two Camemberts and a Saint Albray cheese.
• And the two arms of two wheels of mini Babybel cheese. (You can also use small sheep's milk cheeses here as a variation. Also very tasty)!

Next, we put the rosemary broom in our snowman's hand right away, better safe than sorry, and gave him a small piece of another rosemary branch as a head of hair.

• The snowman's buttons from green olives,
• carve the mouth and nose out of small bell peppers
• and the eyes out of pine nuts.

So, the snowman is ready, and we can move on to the spreads.

Step 3 - Spreads and butter

Now take two or three small ceramic bowls and divide the spreads.

We made the egg salad and Liptauer ourselves but left out the hummus at the request of our grandmothers. It's not their thing.

You can easily prepare the Liptauer the night before. But for the egg salad, we recommend making it fresh before serving.

Recipes for the spreads:

• Egg Salad Spread
• Liptauer Cheese Spread
• Chickpea Spread (Hummus)

Optional dips:

• Apfelkren (Austrian Horseradish Sauce)
• Chive Sauce

Whether homemade or store-bought, now is the time to place those yummy spreads inside cute little bowls on the board.

Place the spreads in the board's top right and left quarters, and place a block of salted butter and different types of crackers next to them.

Step 4 - Vegetables

Wash the cocktail tomatoes, cucumber, and bell pepper and cut them into bite-sized pieces.

Put some in a medium ceramic bowl and place it above the snowman's head, like a little cloud floating above him.

Set the rest of the cut veggies aside to decorate the board at the end.

Step 5 - Cold cuts

Now the time has come to distribute the different types of meat on the board. We have tried to either roll or fold them to be able to distribute them decoratively round on the board.

Make sure to change the various types of cold cuts a little bit, as this gives a better effect on the colors than putting only one kind of sausage on the board.

Step 6 - Decor

The final step is to distribute the rest of the vegetables, nuts, and olives and place anise stars and more rosemary twigs. It's a dream! The anise and rosemary release such a wonderful aroma.

Separately, cut up the bread of your choice and place them in bread baskets on the dining table. That way, everyone has a little basket to snack from.

Serve your holiday charcuterie board immediately after placing the charcuterie board, and enjoy.

We recommend placing a small bread plate with a small butter knife next to the dinner plate at the dining table. This arrangement has several advantages: It looks prettier, you have more space, and an additional separate butter knife for spreading.

We recommend a good Shiraz or Rioja to accompany the Christmas dinner menu.

🍽 Equipment

• Large wooden plate for arranging
• 4-6 small ceramic bowls for the spreads
• 1-2 medium ceramic bowls for the vegetables
• Five small bread baskets

🌡 Storage

The charcuterie board should be served and eaten right away as soon as it is filled.

The ingredients begin to dry out and thus no longer look visually attractive. They shrivel up, so to speak. In addition, the taste also begins to be affected. All things that you want to avoid in a Christmas menu.

💭 Top Tip

A typical Austrian raw ham is the one from the Vulcano pig. An absolute delicacy! If you have the chance to get it, you should definitely give it a try!

More delicious recipes for you to try

• Caesar Salad with Homemade Dressing
• Chive Sauce
• Canned Salmon Recipes (created by realbalanced.com)
• Keto Spinach Artichoke Dip (created by sulaandspice.com)

Another great addition to this charcuterie board is adding a small bowl filled with delicious plum chutney.

If you are looking for charcuterie boards not dedicated to the holiday season, try this football charcuterie board!

If you make this recipe, let me know how you liked it by ★★★★★ star rating it and leaving a comment below. This would be awesome! You can also sign up for our Newsletter or follow me on Pinterest or Instagram and share your creation with me. Just tag me @combinegoodflavors and hashtag #combinegoodflavors, so I don't miss it.

📖 Recipe

⛑️ Food Safety

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

For further information, check Safe Food Handling - FDA.