All Aboard: A Swimming Pig Guide to Charcuterie

One of Tyler Potter’s charcuterie board creations, not to be confused with a grazing board (pictured below).

Whether your holiday plans consist of large gatherings or “007 Days of Christmas” movie marathons, food is likely still a central part of your experience this year. As the Grinch observed of his neighbors: “And they’ll feast, feast, feast, feast. They’ll eat their Who-Pudding and rare Who-Roast Beast.” Perhaps your meal plans are as elaborate as the diamond-patterned grooves on your honey roasted ham, and you’re consulting the Gospels according to Ina, Padma, Gordon, and Chrissy for an Instagrammable main course. You may be debating the merits of cherries jubilee or a Bûche de Noël to round out your decadent meal and prove you can cook more than cereal. But there’s a potential showstopper you might be overlooking: the charcuterie board. Always a staple in my household, the board beckons us to gather. We’re so enamored with this style of appetizer that we recruited our friend and previous MotV feature, Tyler Potter, to provide some charcuterie advice.

“With charcuterie, it’s important to differentiate between a charcuterie board and a grazing board.” Tyler, the founder of The Swimming Pig charcuterie business, notes. Since washing ashore to the Vineyard in 2020, Tyler’s wares have made their way to North Tisbury Farm and Market, as well as the menus of Alchemy, Bettini, and Stoney Hill Pizza, to name a few. Dynamic, driven, and all about the culinary with none of the pretension, Tyler has ample wisdom to offer for those seeking an elevated assortment of cured meats.

“Charcuterie boards, to me, are very much meat-driven, since ‘charcuterie’ is the curing, salting, brining, smoking of meats.” He explains, “I feel a lot of people kind of use that term very loosely.”

A grazing board often entails a carnival of fruits, vegetables, spreads, and salami roses competing for the eye’s attention. While there’s nothing wrong with a grazing board, Tyler asserts (having crafted many himself), he’s passionate about curbing the “bastardization” of the charcuterie board that occurs when the two are mixed up. By definition, a ‘charcuterie’ board celebrates meat as well as the ancient techniques employed to preserve it. This was news to me, as I often grouped charcuterie, cheese, and grazing boards under the same umbrella.

A grazing board, also crafted by Tyler.

For Tyler, there is a romantic, nostalgic connotation to charcuterie.

“I like the really old school, Frenchy…It reminds me of, like, the Gatsby Era. I picture that French chef with the big toque hat and, you know ‘oui, oui, chef!’ in the kitchen, with these big, grand boards. All these types of animal products. It’s just a time warp.”

While they may serve as tantalizing teasers to a meal, charcuterie boards are also an artifact of sorts. Tyler says the origins of these boards were an impactful turning point in human history, “where people were really starting to celebrate food and play with technique. People were playing with garnish and how to make it rich, decadent, and interesting.”

Thus began a sophisticated version of the communal feed. “It kind of reached that apex of survival and became craft and luxury and art. It went from something of a necessity to something of a luxury.”

If you’re looking to put a bit more thought into your own charcuterie board, Tyler has some helpful tips on how you can up your board game.

Tyler’s charcuterie diagram.

Meat Breakdown

Salami: “I usually try to do a couple salamis, dry-cured salami, so maybe like a finocchiona, genoa, especially for holidays and family stuff. Very approachable, simple, palatable, nothing too aggressive, or funky or weird. A nice approachable salami. Soppressata, maybe, for that category.”

We recommend: New England Charcuterie Genoa Salami, La Quercia, Trois Petit Cochons Saucisson Sec

Terrine: “Some sort of pâté, a ground, kind of coarse, loaf-style pâté or terrine. You can have fun with it, you can cut it up, make little blocks, give it some height, and some depth, play with angles and stuff, as far as plating. Sometimes if I’m doing a really big charcuterie board I’ll just put a whole block of pâté and put a knife in it to make it look grand and very Frenchy-European.”

“If it’s a larger board, you can have two different kinds of pâtés.”

We recommend: The Swimming Pig’s Pâté de Campagne

A spreadable: “Liver mousse. It’s obviously an acquired taste, but I think that is appropriate. Even like a foie gras terrine, or foie gras torchon or chicken liver mousse. Or something spreadable. So you have your pâté that’s coarse-cooked, (and also) your soft mousse spread.”

We recommend: Trois Petit Cochons Mousse Truffle

Dry-cure whole muscle: “So like a bresaola or prosciutto, or coppa, lomo. Any of those dry-cured whole muscle meats. Make it nice and ribbony and give it elegance, don’t just lay it flat. Try to give it height. Especially the whole muscle, it’s usually sliced so thin that you can really build it up and make these grand piles with it.”

We recommend: Lady Edison Country Ham, Creminelli Prosciutto

Smoked sausage: “Almost like German-style. If you had like a kielbasa, or knockwurst. Any kind of cooked, smoked, German-style sausage. Even served chilled or room temp, sliced thin.”

We recommend: Olympia Provisions Kielbasa or Kasekrainer

Bonus: “Even pork rillette, or duck rillette, which is basically confit meat that’s potted in its own fat. So I would take pork shoulder, cook it in pork fat, pull it, and shred it, then put it in a jar and top it with pork fat. Spread it on toast. Boom!”

Cheese Breakdown

Cheddar: “That’s always a crowd favorite. Maybe a good cloth-bound.”

We recommend: Old Quebec 7-Year Cheddar, Prairie Breeze (Milton Creamery), Jasper Hill Cave-Aged Cheddar, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Shelburne Farm 2-Year Cheddar

Blue cheese: “Depending on your crowd, a nice stilton, a really funky, punch-in-the-mouth, banyardy blue cheese.”

We recommend: Colston Bassett Stilton Blue, Grand Noir, Bayley Hazen Blue, Fourme d’Ambert

Soft-ripened cheese: “Brie, camembert, like Grey Barn’s Prufrock would be very nice.”

We recommend: Prufrock (Grey Barn), Oma (Jasper Hill), Taleggio (semi-soft), Brebirousse, Delice de Bourgogne

Good gouda: “You can play with different animal cheeses, too. Sheep’s milk: Manchego, pecorino. Goat cheese, a softer texture. Obviously cow’s milk cheese is the most common as well. Think about how to hit all the marks: texture, different kinds of animal cheeses, different countries.”

We recommend: Lamb Chopper (Cypress Grove), Europa (Arethusa), Beemster Smoked Gouda

Other cheeses to elevate your platter: El Trigal Manchego. Mt. Tam Triple Cream, Midnight Moon Chevre

Accompaniment

“Typically with fatty meats like that you would want some sort of acidity. Pickles, pickled vegetables to cut that fat. Having something like jam or raw fruit is important (with) cheese, but also those can accompany something like foie gras or liver quite well.”

For example: “Foie gras with blackberry, cherry, something cooked with madeira, really sweet, and fruity just to balance out that fattiness.”

Mustard: “For the pâté, a dijon would be appropriate, while a whole grain might be appropriate for the smoked sausage. Opening your peripherals, adding little jars to make it look very rustic. Even chilled charred carrots, just something to balance. It’s what’s going to offset those fatty, really aggressive flavors.”

Fruit/Jam: “Grapes, or like orange marmalade, some citrus. I used to take all my fennel stalks, dice them up, and then make a fennel jam with them. Cook them down with sugar and simple syrup and just reduce it. For a home cook it might not be all that approachable, but you can pickle vegetables, make jam, whatever. That’s a nice complement to it.”

Bread: “Obviously you need the bread. You need the bread. I like to have fun with it, too. I’ll take jars and make long, bias cuts of French bread. You can shingle it out. Crackers and bread are both appropriate. Interchangeable for meats and cheese. Maybe you want to get those rosemary crackers and maybe even Ritz crackers.“

Board Composition

“With a lot of this stuff, I’ll cut up (each element) and put it in different places. It’s almost like a game. It makes it a little more interesting and intricate. Also, if you have a large board with multiple people, you’re not just segregating it to one area of your board. It’s easier to manage and it also makes your board look more grand and less singular.”

Once you have your idea of ingredients, here are a few general guidelines:

How much per person?

“For cheese, maybe an ounce per person. It’s not a bad thing to go overboard, no pun intended, because you do want it to look grand. For sliced meats, 3-4 slices per person. Who doesn’t want to have extra salami the next day? All of this is gonna make a great sandwich though. Or a badass breakfast. Top that with a fried egg. You also don’t need a board the size of this table if you have six people over.”

How adventurous should I go with ingredients?

“It depends on your crowd. Use your judgment, read your audience. Try to introduce something new if you want to play a bit, or dial it down using the safer bets. Even blue cheese. Some people just do not like blue cheese, it can be very funky and aggressive. So (in that case), maybe cheddar instead.”

Eye-Catching versus efficiency?

“There is value in just having some nice decoration, having carrots with the tops on, or something to make it look kind of rustic and farmhouse. In my opinion, they’re meant to be abundant, grand, luxurious, decadent. I like to give them height and make them memorable.”

Best served cold?

“It’s important to have it room temperature, both meat and cheese. With meat, the fat will render in your mouth better, the texture is better. You want 55 degrees or room temperature. You obviously don’t want it gooey everywhere, but you want it to be spreadable and it’ll help the flavor bloom a bit, too.”

Accoutrement

“If people want to have a little more ownership over their board: making your accoutrement will kind of give you that. A lot of the stuff you’re buying and assembling, so making your own pickles, making your own jam, making your own mustard, whatever it may be, will make it a little bit more personal.”

We hope you find these guidelines useful when crafting your next holiday board! Willing to share some of your favorite tips and tricks? Leave a comment on the blog!