Halloween Charcuterie and Cheese Board

For an easy and quick appetizer that feeds a crowd, this Halloween charcuterie and cheese board is always a party favorite. Pick your favorite cured meats, cheeses, spreads, seasonal fruits and spooky decor and watch everyone happily devour every bite. Whether you’re hosting a Halloween party or a scary movie night, everyone will love snacking on this festive charcuterie platter.

Jump to:

• Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• Ingredients
• Step-by-Step Instructions
• How to Scale Servings
• Recipe FAQs
• Expert Tips
• Perfect Pairing
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Let’s make your Halloween party extra delicious and simplify your hosting responsibilities with this grazing board.

• Always a crowd-pleaser.
• Endlessly customizable. 
• Takes hardly any time and skill to prepare.
• Easily adjust your servings. 
• Makes a fun presentation.
• Prepare ahead of party time.

Ingredients

When putting together this Halloween snack board, I like to pick two to four items from the below categories. Some items, like the meat and cheese, are available year round, but I like to put a seasonal spin on the other items to keep with the Halloween theme.

Meats: You're welcome to pick your favorite cured meats. I went with prosciutto, chorizo, soppressata and a traditional salami. 

Cheeses: To satisfy the cheese lovers, I like to offer four types of cheese featuring different textures — a hard cheese, semi-soft cheese, soft cheese and spreadable cheese. Here, we have cheddar, havarti, Brie and goat cheese.

Fresh and dried fruit: With those deep hues, black mission figs, red grapes and dried cherries perfectly add to those spooky vibes. Apple slices and pear slices are also great for this time of year.

Spreads: For a sweet spread, apple butter is perfect for this time of year, which is what I served here. You could also go with a cranberry compote, pumpkin butter or fig jam. Whole-grain mustard, infused olive oils, pâté or pesto is a great option for a savory spread. 

Other snacks: Pistachios are fun with their green color for Halloween as well as brined and marinated nibbles, such as black and green olives, tapenade, and marinated peppers and mozzarella balls. Of course, pumpkin seeds are also great for getting into the Halloween spirit. If you have a Whole Foods near you, check out its antipasto bar for lots of great options.

Bread and crackers: I always like to serve crusty bread as well as a couple cracker options. 

Spooky Halloween decor: While not pictured, feel free to get creative here. Plastic spiders and skulls, mini pumpkins, skeleton hands, gummy creepy crawlers, candy eyeballs and mini cauldrons with dry ice are all festive and fun additions to our spooky board. 

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: We start by placing the assortment of cheeses on the board (photo 1). I like to start with the cheese since those larger items need a bit more room.

Step 2: Now we place the different types of cured meats on the board (photo 2).

Step 3: With the stars of the show settled, we fill in the remaining space with the dried and fresh fruits, spreads and snacks (photo 3). For marinated items, you may want to serve them in small bowls, but dry items, like nuts, can go straight onto the board. 

Step 4: For the most fun step, we now add our spooky Halloween decor throughout the platter (photo 4). 

How easy was that? We now have the perfect Halloween grazing board, filled with everyone’s favorite meats, cheeses and nibbles. 

How to Scale Servings

The recipe card shares ingredient proportions for eight people, but you can easily scale this for your number of guests. We want everyone to have enough for snacking while saving room for more appetizers, dinner and dessert.

• Meat: 2-3 ounces per person.
• Cheese: 2-3 ounces per person.
• Snacks: A small handful per person.
• Bread and crackers: One soft bread option and two cracker options per person.

Recipe FAQs

Expert Tips

Make meat roses: Check out this tutorial for making meat roses. It’s easier than you’d think and makes such a fun presentation.

Prepare Halloween-shaped cheese slices: You can use spooky cookie cutters to make cheese slices in the shape of pumpkins, skulls, ghosts — you name it.

Let the board sit at room temperature before serving: Meat and cheeses are best after removing the chill from the refrigerator. The cold masks some of those wonderful flavors. 

Pick the best quality available: Your charcuterie board is only as good as the products you choose. To me, building a charcuterie board is worth the splurge.

Perfect Pairing

Of course, charcuterie boards are favorites for enjoying some wine. But let’s put a festive touch to the experience and enjoy this board with a glass of Halloween sangria. This red wine-based punch is perfect for serving a party, and everyone will love it with all those meats, cheeses and accompaniments.

My Black Widow Martini is another fun cocktail option. With the muddled blackberries, it pairs beautifully with so many meats and cheese. Or you can get creative and make your own Halloween cocktail with this black vodka.

For a more traditional wine pairing, I like to offer a red and a white. A crisp, acidic sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio is perfect for keeping your palate refreshed with all those creamy cheeses and rich meats. A nice sparkling wine is also a great choice, and it goes with almost anything.

If red wine is more your style, I recommend a light- or medium-bodied red, which offers more versatility. A pinot noir, merlot or chianti work nicely here.

Prefer a beer? A wheat beer is a great all-purpose pick. This beer has plenty of bubbles and a nice citrusy kick.

I hope you give spooky season an extra festive touch with this easy Halloween charcuterie board. With all those meats, cheese and other tasty nibbles, everyone will love snacking on this grazing board all night long.

Cheers!

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