Learn how to easily build a beautiful and impressive Trader Joe’s Cheese and Charcuterie Board for a crowd!
Trader Joe’s is one of my favorite places to shop for delicious and reasonably priced cheese and charcuterie board building goodies. It’s an easy, in and out, one-stop shopping trip because they have everything I need to build a bountiful board that could feed a crowd.
This board cost me a total of $95. However, most of the accompaniments and crackers are pantry items that can be used in the future because you might not use all of them on this board. If you have a large crowd and you can’t fit it all on the board, keep everything handy so you can easily replenish the board, if needed.
I’m often asked how many people my boards serve. It all depends on if the board is being served as an appetizer or a meal, the size of the crowd and the hunger of the crowd. It always varies. This board should feed about 10-12 people as an appetizer.
Let me walk you through my process for easily building a beautiful cheese and charcuterie board like this with everything from Trader Joe’s. You can watch this short video to see me building the board…
Start with a good large wood board. One of my favorites is our 36″ x 12″ walnut wood board because it can span down the middle of a table or island, which is great for a crowd to easily gather around. It makes for a wonderful entertaining experience.
Wash the fresh fruits and leave them to dry.
Place the honey, fig butter, orange marmalade, strawberry jam, dijon mustard and anything juicy or brined foods you want to keep from getting on the other foods, such as the olives and cornichons, in serving bowls on the board first.
I get most of my mini serving bowls and cheese knives/spreaders from Target, World Market and Sur La Table. Check out my shop page for links to several of my favorites!
Next arrange the cheeses, meats, grapes and crackers on the board. Spreading each of these larger items out across the board so you can fill in the remaining spaces with the smaller foods.
I serve the cheese as it comes and put a cheese knife next to each one, but sometimes I’ll thinly slice or crumble the harder cheeses so people can easily grab and enjoy. The creamier/softer cheeses need to stay in their original shape though with a little knife so it can be spread on crackers, fruit slices or the other nibbles. Cheeses are best served at room temperature which takes about 30 minutes from the time you remove it from the refrigerator. Building this board should take about 30 minutes so it’s perfect timing from when you remove the cheese from the refrigerator to when it is ready to be enjoyed.
Cheeses:
- Unexpressed Cheddar Cheese
- Cranberry Chevre
- Manchego
- Blue Stilton
- Goat Milk Brie
- Cheddar & Gruyere
- Le Delice de Bourgogne Triple Cream
- Gouda
When it comes to the meats, I like to roll the Prosciutto, fan the Capocollo and shape the Salame into flowers by folding each slice in half and then in half again and holding each folded piece in a stack in my hand until I can no longer hold them before placing them on the board.
Meats:
- Calabrese Salame
- Soppressata Salame
- Prosciutto
- Capocollo
Next place the grape bunches on the board. The apples and pears go on the board last and here is why…
One of the most frequently asked questions I get is how I keep my apples and pears from browning. I actually don’t do anything to them because I think lemon juice, pineapple juice or salt water interferes with the natural flavor of the fresh fruit which pairs so well with the cheeses and other goodies on the board.
I usually just put them on the board last and they get eaten so quickly that they don’t have a chance to get that brown. I’ve found that the fruit really doesn’t brown that much over a few hours and they stay crisp which is important. I also try to expose as little of the white part as possible.
Fresh Fruits:
- Red grapes
- Green grapes
- Honeycrisp apple
- Pear
I like to have a good variety of crackers on the board: plain salted, multi-grain, seeded, and fruit or nut filled. Trader Joe’s offers such a great variety.
Crackers:
- Fig and Olive Crisps
- Rasin Rosemary Crisps
- Original Savory Thin Crackers
- Pita Bite Crackers
- Stone Ground Wheat Crackers
I always finish by filling in the board with all of the nuts and dried fruits and then the pear and apple slices. It’s okay for items to touch each other and overlap. You want it to be abundant.
Accompaniments:
- dried apricots
- dark sweet cherries
- dried Calimyrna figs
- candied walnuts
- truffle marcona almonds
- roasted & salted marcona almonds
- sweet & spicy pecans
- marinated olive duo
- cornichons
- fig butter
- strawberry jam
- dijon mustard
- orange marmalade
- honey with honeycomb
That’s all there is to it, friends! A cheese and charcuterie board made with ingredients all from Trader Joe’s. It’s sure to wow your loved ones with both its beauty and deliciousness.
When it comes to leftovers, I really try to build our boards so we don’t have many. If we do have leftovers from a cheese and charcuterie board, we’ll enjoy them over the next few days on snack boards, in sandwiches or as pizza toppings.
I hope you enjoy building and serving this board as much as I do. Your guests are sure to love it! If you’re inspired by it, be sure to snap a picture and share it with me or tag me on Instagram @thebakermama so I can see. 
I love seeing how inspired and creative y’all get with the boards I share. Have fun and enjoy!
xoxo,
- Unexpressed Cheddar Cheese
- Cranberry Chevre
- Manchego
- Blue Stilton
- Goat Milk Brie
- Cheddar & Gruyere
- Le Delice de Bourgogne Triple Cream
- Gouda
- Calabrese Salame
- Soppressata Salame
- Prosciutto
- Capocollo
- Red grapes
- Green grapes
- Honeycrisp apple
- Pear
- Fig and Olive Crisps
- Raisin Rosemary Crisps
- Original Savory Thin Crackers
- Pita Bite Crackers
- Stoneground Wheat Crackers
- dried apricots
- dark sweet cherries
- dried Calimyrna figs
- candied walnuts
- truffle marcona almonds
- roasted & salted marcona almonds
- sweet & spicy pecans
- marinated olive duo
- cornichons
- fig butter
- strawberry jam
- dijon mustard
- orange marmalade
- honey with honeycomb
- Start with a good large wood board. One of my favorites is our 36" x 12" walnut wood board because it can span down the middle of a table or island, which is great for a crowd to easily gather around. It makes for a wonderful entertaining experience.
- Wash the fresh fruits and leave them to dry.
- Place the honey, fig butter, orange marmalade, strawberry jam, dijon mustard and anything juicy or brined foods you want to keep from getting on the other foods, such as the olives and cornichons, in serving bowls on the board first.
- Next arrange the cheeses, meats, grapes and crackers on the board. Spreading each of these larger items out across the board so you can fill in the remaining spaces with the smaller foods.
- Finish by filling in the board with all of the nuts and dried fruits and then the pear and apple slices. It's okay for items to touch each other and overlap. You want it to be abundant.
- Serve each cheese with a cheese knife, spreader or fork. Place a spreader or spoon in each of the spreads. Serve and enjoy!
Hi! Great tutorial! Would you mind sharing the ballpark of your spend for this board? Want to manage expectations of the girls who are splitting it!
Hi JRae! I talk about it up in the post. This ingredients for the board cost me a total of $95. However, most of the accompaniments and crackers are pantry items that can be used in the future because I did not use all of them on this board. Enjoy!