Created with beams of pretzels, salami shingles, goat cheese snowmen, and more, people are taking the charcuterie chalet challenge and creating a treat rivaling iconic gingerbread houses. One of the secret ingredients is caramel as the “glue” to hold it all together. If you prefer the savory side of things, you’re in for a real treat. How about a gingerbread house that looks like a castle? Or cheese boards shaped like turkeys and other whimsical foods that look almost too good to eat?
Safety Tips for Preparing Charcuterie Chalets
Nicole Easterday of FARMcurious, an online resource for urban homesteaders, understands some of the hesitation you might have creating or consuming such a communal piece of art. Unlike a gingerbread house that stays out for days, charcuterie chalets are supposed to be consumed right after assembly. She said people expressed concerns about how much the food must have been touched during assembly. “Wearing tight-fitting food-safe gloves is a great idea,” she says. “The importance of hand washing can’t be overstated, and for goodness sake, don’t lick your fingers!” Six charcuterie chalet creators have offered tips and inspiration for building their seasonal architectural treats. The one thing they have in common? They had a great time constructing the chalets and enjoyed devouring them even more. Everything on her charcuterie chalet board is edible. What sets this board apart is the snowman. “I loved the way the little snowman turned out,” Easterday said. “For people who don’t have the patience to build a charcuterie chalet, the snowman was so easy with a really big payoff. You could pop him on the top of a round of brie and appear totally genius.” “We used cream cheese and a shrink wrap on cardboard for the structure, which worked well,” the Valbella team said. For the cabin’s main sides, “we used Rohess speck, our specialty here at Valbella. It’s a double-smoked bacon.” And, one of the best parts is the landjaeger Bavarian sausage fence. “I used whipped cream cheese in a piping bag for my glue and assembled a pre-made gingerbread house,” said Mullen. “The gingerbread actually acted as a nice spiced pairing with the cheese and meat!” Instead of the full salami shingled roof, Mullen took a different approach and alternated salami and brie.
Marissa’s Favorite Pairings
Brie, raspberries, honey almonds, and gingerbreadGoat cheese, salami, and broccoliCheddar and salami on a pretzel
“We used the empty [breadstick] box cut in half on the inside as something for our walls to stick to,” she said. After, they used herbed chevre as the mortar between the Alessi grissini breadstick logs. “Wasa crackers and salami were used for the roof, mushroom caps as pots for our rosemary trees, rosemary wreath with pomegranate seeds, parmesan cheese snow, wasabi peas for walkway stones, and Irish porter cheese sidewalk.” While it was fun to build, they enjoyed devouring their venture just as much, “It was a cry-worthy laugh watching it all come crashing down! We ate it all! It’s sacrilege to waste good meat and cheese!” If you’re using a cardboard foundation, beware of the cream cheese. “The hardest part was that the moisture from the cream cheese was softening the cardboard and almost caved in,” the team said. “We reinforced it with skewers, and it was all good!” Cream cheese and pub cheese is an excellent base for applying cracker siding and salami shingles. “It’s really sticky, so your ingredients will easily stay put,” they added. While Buck serves up a mean charcuterie board for her friends and family and sells locally in the Boston area, she faced a few challenges when constructing the house. “I couldn’t get the roof to stay on with graham crackers, so I ended up using Brewer’s Crackers and created a true chalet-style A-frame roof.” She used caramel instead of honey to hold the structure together, which typically pairs better with cheese and meat. Buck put the structure in the freezer to harden the caramel, which helped when it came to decorating. According to MaryCharlotte, the best part is the little orange jelly in the front: “It’s hard to tell what it’s supposed to be, but I love it!”
