Our First Charcuterie Board and Honey Taste Test

While we have made up several antipastos over the years, we have never done a charcuterie until now.  We bought a nice looking 15"x22” walnut board from a vendor at the Lenoir City Crafts Fair for $85, which seemed like a good price. 

Then we invited our friends David and Laurie over along with Cindy and Pat (SIL), and planned what to put on the board. 

I looked around the web and settled on The Perfect Charcuterie Board from Tastes Better From Scratch to use as a guide and this is a shot of theirs.

On ours we had the following:

Meat – ham, salami, and andouille sausage

Cheese – smoked gouda, fontina, gruyere, and cream cheese with pepper jelly

Condiments – dill pickles, mixed olives, jalapenos, coarse ground mustard

Misc – dried dates and apricots, sugared nuts, grape tomatoes

Crackers – breton original, wheat thins, cheese-its

And to top the food off, Laurie brought some of her famous deviled eggs.

We were already attacking the food when I remembered to take a pic.

We finished the eating off with a Cindy-baked Hawaiian Cake

The Verdict:

The actual board worked very well as it was a good size for our table and it held plenty of food.  The items we served were a hit with the guests and while we didn't eat everything, we did a pretty good number on it.

Breakfast

And there was no way I could have the leftovers in the fridge and not turn them into breakfast.  After chopping, I nuked the meat and olives for 30 seconds before adding to the eggs.

If you like good cheese, deli meat, and olives, you would have to love this as I did.

Honey

While the three of set on the dock on a recent evening, Cindy pointed out a sourwood tree across our small cove and soon after a discussion about honey ensued.  In this area sourwood honey is prized and it cost about twice as much.  As it turned out, Cindy had some sourwood honey and we had some regular both from local suppliers.

This meant a taste test was in order and we each tried both with Cindy preferring the sourwood, Bev preferred the regular, and I liked them both - there was a distinct taste difference.  I can see why the honey aficionados might prefer the sourwood, but I’m not one of them so we’ll stick with the regular honey at half the cost.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

06/08/22 event date