Etiquette at the Charcuterie Board

In your head, as you read this topic if you are thinking ‘Gosh, can Praveeni tone it down a bit?!’, I am completely with you, my fellow Sri Lankans who are more accustomed to calling this particular selection of food a ‘Cheese Board’. Ah – a Cheese Board; now that sounds more like it eh?
Charcuterie Board or Cheese and Meat Board is the fancy platter on which different types of cheese, crackers, fruit, meats, dips and nuts are served and it has definitely made major inroads to Sri Lankan evening gatherings over the past decade or so.

Nibbling away at cheese, dipping crackers into well seasoned sauces, cutting into delicate slices of meat and sipping a glass of wine over a hearty chat sounds fantastic. Eating with our fingers is not alien to Sri Lankans and we could fall into the trap of thinking that we would not err at a cheese board. Believe me, it can happen – read on to maintain class and sophistication as you stand around this shared platter.

01.Always Pick a Plate for Yourself
It is true that you can pick off the shared platter; but please serve what you wish to consume on to your own little plate. Don’t keep cutting your bite sized pieces on the shared platter and leaving the kernels of the fruit on its edges.

02.Slice the Cheese Wedges
Cheese wedges (like the chunky one shown at the centre of the image above), are usually most tender at the centre. Since you are supposed to ‘share’ what is on the platter, slice the wedges along the sides so that you don’t take the centre piece all for yourself.

03.Serve Dips and Sauces for Yourself
Ask for a spoon and serve a bit of the dips on to your plate and keep dabbing whatever you like in it. Try to avoid chucking your half eaten cracker in to the shared platter’s bowl with the sauce.

04.Grapes and Other Fruits with Seeds
You can place the fruits on your plate and slice them through to get rid of the seeds. If that does not seem viable, you can pop the seeds out of your mouth, by covering your mouth with one hand and using the thumb and fore finger of your other hand to remove the seeds from your mouth. Be mindful to place the seeds at the edge of your plate.
When serving fruits for yourself, try to take a small bunch so that you don’t reach out to the charcuterie board every minute to get another grape.

05.Watch Your Sleeves, Bracelets and Shawls
Ladies and gentlemen, please make sure that your clothes and jewellery do not touch the food on the charcuterie board. It helps to keep your clothes and jewellery clean and ensures that the food is more hygienic – absolute win win.

06.Use the Cutlery

Generally there would be spoons, forks and different types of knives for the various types of soft and hard cheeses at the charcuterie board. Use them as much as possible and in the event you need to use your fingers to pick something up, make sure you touch ONLY what you wish to pick up and that too with the tips of your fingers as much as possible.

I hope you find this useful as you gather around a board piled with cheeses, hams, crackers, nuts, fruits and pickles with your colleagues and friends. Sometime soon, I will write about what you should do as the host of a charcuterie board and how you can ensure that the guests have a cracker of a time immersing themselves in creamy cheeses and a splash of other flavours.

If you have questions about charcuterie boards, please write to us at fullofetiquette@gmail.com.

Photo by Juliana Barquero on Unsplash