Halloween Charcuterie and Cheese Board

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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.

The Halloween charcuterie board on a black and white textured surface with a spooky mist coming in on the sides from dry ice.

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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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📖 Recipe

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.

Four different cheeses placed on a black wooden board before adding the other meats and snacks.

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

A selection of meats and cheeses on a black wooden board before adding the other ingredients.

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.

A hand placing a bowl of black olives and green olives on a black wooden board with various cured meats and cheeses.

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

The charcuterie board after all the different categories and Halloween decor have been added.

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

What kind of board do you use?

If you have a dedicated cheese board, that’s perfect, but don’t feel like you need one. A large cutting board works perfectly for serving a crowd.

How long can you keep a charcuterie board out?

You can safely keep the meat and cheeses out for about two hours. After that, it’s a good idea to wrap the leftovers and keep them in the refrigerator.

If you’d like to serve your Halloween grazing board for longer, you can always put out smaller portions and replenish as you go.

Can you add desserts and Halloween candy?

The meats are the star of a traditional charcuterie board, but this is your board. If you want to break the “rules” and serve your favorite Halloween candy and sweet treats with those other accompaniments, go right ahead. Besides your classic trick-or-treat candy, think mini Halloween cupcakes, candy pumpkins, candy corn and caramel apples.

Can you use the leftovers?

Absolutely, charcuterie board leftovers are great for snacking or making some seriously delicious sandwiches. Don’t let those leftovers go to waste. Store your leftovers in an airtight container or tightly cover them with plastic wrap and keep them in the refrigerator.

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.

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!

A side view of the Halloween charcuterie board with an orange log of goat cheese, other snacks and spooky decor.

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