If you’re looking to take your next charcuterie board to a new level, there’s a class for that. NJ moms and sisters Molly and Carrie from Molly Boards Charcuterie lead workshops to help you make a stunning grazing box or platter. We had a chance to try it out for ourselves when they partnered with High Crest at The Wave Resort & Spain Pier Village in Long Branch for a night of charcuterie board making!
The class provides all the meats, cheeses, nuts, chocolate and fresh flowers you need plus a cutting board, knife and gloves. Once the class begins, you’ll figure out quickly that making a beautiful board is a mix of culinary skills and artwork. You’ll mix salty with sweet, fresh with packaged and jam with honey. You’ll also want to mix different colors and textures of food throughout the box.
The key is to be creative, have fun, and not worry too much about where you place your food because you’ll be shifting things around ’til you’re done.
Start with the cheeses, which include a wheel of Brie, slices of Vermont cheddar, BellaVitano merlot that crumbles, cubes of pepperjack and a triangle of gorgonzola. Molly suggests cutting the Brie into eighths and assembling them as a daisy (7 pieces in a circle with one in the middle) or a river (placing each piece so it snakes through the box). The cheddar gets sliced diagonally so you can layer it, tip to edge, like cheese mountaintops. The gorgonzola can sit on its own, with crackers placed nearby.
Next up are the meats: round slices of pepperoni and salami, and oval slices of Prosciutto Di Parma. With the pepperoni, you can fold two pieces, separately, in half into the shape of a taco shell. Overlap the corner of one with the corner of the other, then fold each side inward into a little meat envelope. You can place this near the river of Brie so it looks like a fence.
For an antipasto kebab, start with a pepperoni rose. Again, folding two pieces into two separate taco shells, lay them on top of each other and roll them end to end until they make a rosebud. Use a long, thin popsicle stick and place a black olive, then a leaf of basil, then the pepperoni rose, next a mini ball of mozzarella and finally a green olive. Place the kebab anywhere in your box that needs a pop of color.
The highlight of this amazing board? Making a salami rose. Using a small Solo cup or the inside of a champagne flute, put a slice of the rounded salami halfway into the glass and halfway onto the outside. Continue to layer seven more slices of the salami around the opening of the cup. When done, place your hand over the cup, turn it upside down, and voila! You have a flower. Peel back the inside of the flower to make it look like it’s in bloom.
Fold the prosciutto in half, lengthwise, and then fold it like an accordion. Fan out the bottom and stand it up next to any of your harder cheeses.
Next up is the fruit. Cutting the kiwi will require the most patience. Thinking of Charlie Brown’s shirt, cut off the ends of the kiwi and then diagonally go halfway through the fruit, switching the direction of your diagonals. When you open the kiwi you’ll have two beautifully designed halves. Add green and red grapes either individually or on stems; cut a strawberry in half; throw in some raspberries, blackberries and blueberries on top of the cheeses; and add in a chocolate truffle or two for kicks.
With whatever space is still available, add in almonds, candied cashews, walnuts, dried apricots or figs. To finish up, place some freshly cut flowers around the box, which you can also use with a rosemary sprig when you close and tie it.
You can buy the ingredients at your local supermarket or Italian deli. If you want hands-on instruction, sign up for a Galentine’s Soiree & Mixology Workshop at WonderLand + Sea in Manasquan on February 15, or Charcuterie & co*cktails at Mantoloking Road Ale House in Brick Twp. on February 22.
Molly Boards Charcuterie has a storefront at 627 Arnold Ave., in Point Pleasant Beach. They are also offering an amazing Super Bowl platter and a Valentine’s Date Night Box for all your February celebrations.
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Check out our Instagram page for footage from the workshop – you’ll be inspired to sign up or try making a board at home!
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