How to put together the perfect charcuterie platter

A good charcuterie platter isn't just slices lined up on a board. It's a balance of flavours, textures and colours, plus a few well-chosen accompaniments. Here's how to put together a platter that impresses without spending the whole evening on it.

Rule 1: 3 to 5 cured meats, no more

Too much choice kills the pleasure. Aim for 3 products for a small aperitif, 5 for a big table, alternating the families:

• A saucisson or a dry sausage: the bite, the bold taste. An artisan saucisson sec or an award-winning dry sausage.
• A dry-cured ham: the melt. Auvergne PGI, Serrano or, to mark the occasion, Bellota.
• A cured meat with character: mild or spicy chorizo.
• A fine cut: Iberian lomo or Catalan fuet, for lightness.
• Something to spread (optional): rillettes, terrine or pâté.

Rule 2: the right quantities

Allow 40 to 60 g per person if the platter precedes a meal, 100 to 150 g if it is the meal. For 8 people at a grazing dinner: about 1 kg of charcuterie, say a saucisson, a chorizo, a fuet, 200 g of sliced ham and a lomo. All the benchmarks are in our guide how much charcuterie per person.

Rule 3: the accompaniments that change everything

• Bread: a traditional baguette, country bread or toasted slices rubbed with tomato for a Spanish touch.
• Crunch: gherkins, pickled onions, celery, radishes.
• Sweetness: fresh or dried figs, grapes, chutney, honey. Sweetness brings out dry-cured ham.
• Cheese: one or two at most. Saint-Nectaire or Cantal with Auvergne, manchego with Spain.
• Olives and toasted almonds, to nibble between slices.

Rule 4: slicing and presentation

Take all the cured meats out 30 minutes beforehand so they reach room temperature. Slice the saucisson and fuet into slightly thick rounds, the chorizo and lomo very thin, and arrange the ham in folded or rolled slices to give volume.

On the board, alternate the colours: the red of the chorizo, the pink of the ham, the brown of the saucisson. Put the accompaniments in small bowls so the juices don't mix. And leave a whole piece of each cured meat on the board: it looks good, and guests finish slicing themselves.

Three platter ideas by occasion

1. Auvergne platter: artisan saucisson sec, award-winning dry sausage, Auvergne PGI ham, Saint-Nectaire, country bread, gherkins.
2. Tapas platter: mild and spicy chorizo, lomo, Serrano, fuet, manchego, olives, tomato bread.
3. Celebration platter: Bellota ham, lomo, saucisson, figs, honey, almonds, and a good wine.

Frequently asked questions

Can you prepare a charcuterie platter the day before?
Better to slice on the day, at most an hour before, and cover the platter. Sliced charcuterie dries out quickly.

Which board to use?
Wood or slate, it doesn't matter: the main thing is that it's big enough so nothing overlaps.

Which wine to serve with a charcuterie platter?
A light, fruity red, a dry rosé or a crisp white. We cover it all in which wine with charcuterie.

To save time, our aperitif boxes already bring together 3 to 7 matching cured meats: all that's left is to slice.