National Cold Cut Day is here (well, it was on Monday, March 3rd), and we’re celebrating the best way we know how—with an epic charcuterie board! This isn’t just about stacking meats and cheeses; it’s an art form that turns any gathering into a gourmet experience. In this blog, we’re spilling some of our best charcuterie secrets—from choosing the perfect cold cuts and cheeses to adding a spicy twist with bold flavors and hot sauce. Plus, we’re offering full recipes for free download to take your board to the next level. Celebrate National Cold Cut Day with a spicy charcuterie board, and let’s build something delicious!
Everything you'll need for our Ultimate Spicy Charcuterie Board:
Ingredients for the board:
For the Cuban rolls:
12 Hawaiian rolls
Dijon mustard (1 T)
Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp)
Butter 6 T
Brewer’s Fire Mustard Habanero Pickle juice (2 T)
Brewer’s Fire Mustard Habanero Pickles
1 lb very thinly sliced hot honey ham
½ lb thinly sliced swiss cheese
½ lb thinly sliced pepperjack cheese
Fresh garlic (4 cloves [minced])
Fresh Parsley (½ cup [chopped])
For the Burrata Prosciutto Bruschetta
Fresh garlic (4 cloves [minced])
Olive oil (1 T)
4 Jalapenos (chunked)
½ Cabatta loaf
Burrata
Heirloom tomatoes 8 oz (quartered)
½ lb Prosciutto (sliced extra thin)
Brewer’s Fire Mad Melitazana Hot Sauce (until coated [about 2 T])
Jalapeno Glaze (drizzle about 1 tsp)
Balsamic Glaze (drizzle about 1 tsp)
Fresh Basil (½ c [sliced])
2 packages - sliced
For the Brie Pepper Jelly Wheel
Mini Brie Wheel
For the rest of the Board:
Red Grapes
Various Cheeses
I used:
Dolce Bleu cheese
Smoked Spiced Gruyere
½ lb Boarshead Havarti Jalapeno (sliced very thin)
½ lb Boarshead 3 Pepper Colby Jack (sliced very thin)
Murray’s St. Angel triple cream
Pumpkin Spice Bellviano
Various Meats
I used:
Spotted Trotter Sopprasata Salami (3 oz thinly sliced)
Spotted Trotter Calabrian Pork Salami (3 oz thinly sliced)
Spotted Trotter Sujuk Beef & Lamb Salami (3 oz thinly sliced)
Spotted Trotter Chupacabra Goat & Beef Salami (3oz thinly sliced)
Boar’s Head Hot Honey Chicken (½ lb sliced very thin)
Vigo Greek Peppers
Fresh Rosemary for garnish
Before we dive into the Ultimate Spicy Charcuterie Board recipe, we should go over...
Choosing Your Cold Cuts -- The Foundation of Flavor
We like it spicy here! There are so many arrays of spicy salamis and meats. And you always want a variety on your board. We highly recommend the Spotted Trotter for local gourmet spiced salamis. They are delicious, unique, and have the perfect kick.
In addition to salamis, it's always great to have some other kinds of meats, like ham or even chicken. In our board today, we feature a hot honey chicken and we use a hot honey ham in the Little Cuban Rolls. You can get meats like these at any local grocery deli, usually. The rosemary ham is also really great, and Cajun turkey is another one of my favs. There are other peppered hard salamis (you want a thick cut for hard salami) that will also spice up your board!
Deli meat for charcuterie is best when sliced very thin. I'm talking not quite shaved, but just thick enough to be able roll them up. This way, when you unroll it to eat it, it just melts on your tongue. You get to eat more, and also, I think it really helps you taste all the elements of your meat. When it's cut too thick, it just doesn't hit your tongue right, like drinking wine out of a pint glass. However, there are some meats you want a thick cut, like hard salamis. There are some peppered hard salamis that are a delicious way to spice up your board!
Deciding on Your Cheeses and The Perfect Pairings
You want to choose cheeses with different textures and flavors. You can think of cheeses in different categories: sharp and crumbly, soft and bright, firm and nutty, tangy and funky, ripe and oozy. You want 3 - 5 different styles of cheeses. [1] There are different ways to cut your cheese and it varies on type. Usually with creamy ones, you can just stick a cheese knife because they're spreadable. Hard cheeses, triangles are always good. Wheels of cheese you probably want to cut just like a pie. [2]
I like to also include some sliced cheeses from the deli and roll them up so I can pair them with other roll ups of meat that pair well together. You can make cool designs this way and it provides a nice color contrast. For example, a hot honey ham roll up next to a jalapeno Havarti roll up... makes my mouth water! Another great spicy pairing is Spanish chorizo with three pepper Colby Jack. Even a capicola with a spicy goat cheese-- like a Nashville Hot Goat Cheese. There is this blueberry goat cheese they sell at Aldi, it pairs so well with hot honey chicken from the deli and Atlanta Burns Blueberry Ghost Sauce. The options are seemingly endless! Get creative, and don't hold back!
Try pairing your next charcuterie with an array of hot sauces. You can get some fruity ones, some fermented ones, some that really make your mouth burn to have with sandwiches or crackers, maybe even some hot Truff to go with some white Irish cheddar and a cracker. There are also spicy jams, spreads, and dips.
Recipe: Ultimate Spicy Charcuterie Board
To start off, we'll get the cooking out of the way, so we can get to the fun stuff-- decorating our board!
Let's begin by preparing our Little Cuban Rolls (you can download the recipe for these rolls for free at the bottom of the page).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a baking dish the size of your rolls (I used 12 rolls and a toaster oven, but you can use 24 rolls in a standard oven and use a 9 x 13 baking dish) with butter or non-stick spray, and cut the tops off of your rolls off, cutting the rolls in half just leaving the bottoms in the baking dish.
Melt your butter and minced garlic in a pan on medium heat until fragrant.
In a small bowl, mix your Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, and Brewer’s Fire Habanero Mustard pickle juice. Add the melted garlic butter and stir.
Next, we are going to add half of our pound of Boarshead Hot Honey Ham. Let me tell you, this ham is one of my favorites. Sometimes, I'll just go to the fridge and grab some to snack on. Before I continue, I need to mention a couple things that are extremely important about not only this hot honey ham, but also most cold cuts in general:
The thickness of your cold cuts. Your meat needs to be sliced very thin or even shaved (we're talking about for these rolls and also other sandwiches).
Leave air pockets in your meat as your layer it onto the bread. You never want to lay your meat flat onto that bread. By layering the slice of meat onto itself (which you do by placing it only the bread in a light and fluffy way, letting gravity do the work), you not only prevent the meat from sliding around while you're eating the sandwich, but you also enhance the flavor of the meat. When you add airy pockets in your deli meat, it creates an exciting taste experience, especially when combined with all the right textures.
So, after carefully layering you first layer of hot honey ham, we can go ahead and add our first layer of cheese. I started with the Swiss cheese. Just lay on your cheese overlapping the slices a little bit.
Next, we'll add our Brewer's Fire Mustard Habanero Pickles. Put at least one pickle per square roll (2 if you have enough and are feeling froggy).
On top of the pickles, we'll layer on the pepper jack cheese, and then the final layer of ham.
Put the tops on the sandwiches and pour the the buttery mixture in the small bowl over the tops.
Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh parsley when done.
Try each bite with Horror + Struck Bela Lugosi's Dead Hot Sauce.
Next, we'll make the Burrata Prosciutto Bruschetta. (free download of recipe at the bottom of the page)
I didn’t love the recipe we used in the video, so I altered it. Since we are using heirloom cherry tomatoes, they are so sweet, delicious, and crisp that we’re going to cut them into quarters and leave them cold. So cut them in wedges, put them in a medium bowl, and set them aside.
We’ll sauté the jalapenos on medium heat with olive oil and garlic for about 5 minutes.
Go ahead and toast your sliced ciabatta toast points while you wait.
Add your jalapeno mixture to the bowl of tomatoes, as well as half of your fresh basil, lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper, and generously apply Brewer’s Fire Mad Melitzan to your tomato mixture. Stir.
Place your Burrata on a plate and cut an X into the center. Nice and gushy. Burrata is one of my favorite cheeses-- it's like the ultimate mozzarella and it's versatile what you can do with it!
Spread your creamy burrata onto your toast points. Then, add prosciutto to each slice (cut to size).
Finally, spoon your tomato mixture on top and drizzle with jalapeno and balsamic glaze.
Top with fresh basil on each slice, and place decoratively on your board. (maybe in a spiral in a corner)
Bake a brie cheese wheel on 350 for 8-10 minutes, then add Powerful Pepper Co Strawberry Death Spiral Jam while its still hot! Then, place it decoratively somewhere on the board, and put a cheese knife into it, maybe even cut you're first slice so you can see the brie gushing out.
With the hard parts out of the way, we can start really getting to the fun part-- decorating our board with delicious food.
Use grapes to divide your board into sections.
Next, we will make our Salami Roses -- a Simple yet Stunning Trick. If you like charcuterie, you're going to love this.
Grab a wine glass and layer your salami around the rim all the way. (make sure its sliced very thin or it won't work!) You want to basically have about half of your slice of salami on the inside and the other half on the outside along the rim. The closer together the pieces of salami, the more complex your rose will be. I recommend about half a centimeter to a centimeter apart. For different size roses, use different glasses, like champagne flutes or other kinds of wine glasses. Place the glass upside down where you want your rose on your board and ta-da! This creates the perfect vessel to hold nuts, olives, or peppers, maybe even fill it with some hot honey goat cheese! If you add multiple layers around your rim, you can fill in your rose rather than use it as a vessel.
Choose some nice spots for your roses, and decorate around them, and/or use them to fill in holes on your board! Wherever they are, they will be beautiful.
Roll up your other meats. I used the hot honey chicken and put it between three pepper Colby Jack and jalapeno Havarti. I sliced the spicy smoked gouda and put it in between Spotted Trotters Chupacabra Goat & Beef Salami and their Sopprasata Pork Salami, which I didn't roll or fold, since they were tinier slices.
I used a Dulce Bleu cheese to provide that funky flavor on the board. It's a pungent one! Usually the creamier the bleu cheese, the more pungent the funk. It's certainly an acquired taste! Try putting some hot sauce on it.
I also used Murray's St. Angel Triple Cream. Reading the description, "It's like a harmony of singing angels directed by Marvin Gaye."
There is also a delicious pumpkin spice Bellviano I couldn't pass up. Give's a nice nutty flavor.
Serve with toast points and crackers. Garnish with fresh rosemary, thyme, parsley, or basil.
When you feel like it's complete, you're ready to enjoy some time with friends. Salud!
Watch our video reel on IG: @hotsaucefest.atl
How do you feel about charcuterie?? Do you have any favorite meat and cheese pairings? Any favorite hot sauce and cheese pairings?? Drop it in the comments!
Additional Resources:
References:
I highly recommend this book! It covers so many tips, pro quos, and ideas.
[1] Scott, E.S., (2021). Boards: Stylish Spreads for Casual Gatherings, 20.
[2] Scott, E.S., (2021). Boards: Stylish Spreads for Casual Gatherings, 22.
Spiciest Regards,
Dragonzorde
Amazing, such a beautiful presentation of the meats. Definitely loved the salami roses, but I’m a slut for burrata so I’d definitely start there personally.
Wow!!! You did not hold back. This is inspiring. I’ve never incorporated hot sauce in my charcuterie before. I love the salami roses and the references!