As a wood worker, charcuterie boards are a great small craft to make as gifts for any time of year! We made these walnut charcuterie boards out of a live edge slab using the following steps. First you will want to find a live edge piece of wood, we recommend around 20‑26 inches in length for one board.
As a charcuterie board material, black walnut wood is probably one of the best you can pick. Its natural resistance to water and bacteria ensures your food stays hygienic. While its strength and hardness withstand regular use and knife cuts with ease.
Walnut is one of the best woods for cutting boards. It has microbial properties that make it a healthy, safe wooden board to have in the kitchen. Is Walnut toxic for cutting boards? No, walnut is a non-toxic wood for cutting boards.
This American-made, hand-finished walnut Cheese Board will serve as the most unique piece on your dinner or coffee table. Or even nightstand. Because while it's technically "for" cheese, it makes for a beautiful background for cookies and a glass of milk as well.
Wood that are too hard - Hardwoods like mahogany, teak, or rosewood (too hard) are not acceptable choices for cutting boards. 2. Soft woods - Avoid all softer woods such as pine or cedar. These woods tend to splinter easily, and they're too porous so they harbor bacteria more easily.
The best wood for charcuterie board is one that is durable, food safe, easy to clean, and has the looks of refined elegance. Non-porous hardwoods like teak, acacia, and maple make the best charcuterie boards. Other materials like plastic, marble, and bamboo also make good charcuterie boards.
Treat your board with mineral oil a few times per month
To treat your wood cutting board, use a dry, clean rag and rub enough oil to coat the board's surface on all sides (not just the top and bottom). Give the entire wood cutting board to a mineral oil treatment a couple of times per month.
Following are the reasons why Walnut wood is expensive.
The tree takes around 50 years to mature, it is longer than most other trees. It is in high demand due to its desired characteristics such as durability, strength or aesthetic making it one of the best wood species around.
Species such as maple and walnut dry at an intermediate rate, ie a 1” walnut board air dried in the south in the summer time will dry in about 120 days, and species such as oak, mesquite, and hickory dry very slowly (ie 1” per year).
Walnut: I call it a happy medium between Cherry and Maple--it's the "Goldilocks." Very nice on your knife, and it takes a stain well since it is so dark to begin with. Walnut is probably the single most popular wood for us.
There are many types of wood that can be used for a charcuterie board, such as oak, walnut and maple; you should definitely consider all factors before selecting a type of wood. Its important to consider the hardness of the wood species if you do plan to cut on it as well.
Step 2: How many servings per person
Cured meat: 3 ounces of meat per person. If making the charcuterie board the main course, then double the serving size to 6 ounces per person. Nuts and olives: One handful per person. Dried fruit: 1 to 2 pieces per person.
When you plan charcuterie, offer three to five items. Make sure they span the range of fatty, spicy and spreadable, and that they come from two or more animals. Charcuterie is divided into three types: forcemeats, sausages and salumi, an Italian word for “salted meats,” which includes preserved whole cuts of meat.
Walnuts. Walnuts have an earthy flavor and drier texture when compared to other nuts, which makes them a delicious garnish for aged cheeses like cheddar. The flavor of walnuts also complements sheep's milk cheeses like Petite Basque and Pecorino Ginepro.
Bananas, pineapples and melons are not such a great idea. Bananas can be mushy and turn brown quickly; melons and pineapples can be juicy, and the juices might mix with other foods. Here is a list of great fruits to include on a Charcuterie board: Apples, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, oranges and pears.
Avoid using your knife on surfaces made of glass, granite, marble, or ceramic.
For cutting boards that will be used daily, Jess, stick with tight-grained domestic hardwoods, especially maple, birch, and beech. The small pores on these dense hardwoods leave fewer hiding places for foodborne bacteria than an open-grained wood, such as red oak. (Bamboo, actually a grass, offers another safe option.)
Maple. Probably the most common material in wooden cutting boards. Rated 1,450 lbf on the Janka test, a maple cutting board offers the ideal combination of surface hardness and kindness to your kitchen knives. The small pores in maple also prevent bacteria from growing on the surface.