Charcuterie Cups
These individual Charcuterie Cups are perfect party pleasers. They’re an assortment of meats, cheeses, pickled food, and sweet fruit, amongst other things. They’re rich, indulgent, and can be beautifully arranged.
Why make a charcuterie cup?
There are many reasons why Charcuterie Cups are a good idea - perhaps one of your guests has allergies, and you would like to make them a custom charcuterie cup at your dinner party. Covid (or just flu season) is another good reason since guests won’t have to share food from the same board. Besides practical reasons, mini Charcuterie Cups look beautiful and sleek when displayed and laid out for guests at dinner parties! For our Charcuterie Cups, we either use glass cups or recyclable cups.
Cheeses
Cheeses are crowd-pleasers, and we aim to add at least three cheeses to our Charcuterie Cups: creamy, strong cheese, soft, milder cheese, and sharp cheese. For these Charcuterie Cups, we use slices of stilton, brie, and cubes of mature cheddar. We also add a small mozzarella ball onto each of our skewers, which offsets some more acidic food items. Here are some cheese ideas for your Charcuterie Cups:
- Blue Cheese
- Gouda
- Pecorino
- Camembert
- Gruyère
Saltiness: meats
We like to use cured meats in the Charcuterie Cups for a bit of saltiness to contrast the other flavors in the cups. We use two types of meat for these cups: salami and prosciutto. Cured meats are brilliant in these cups, but they’re not the only options for types of meats. Here are some ideas for meats to add to these cups:
- Ham
- Gammon
- Chorizo
- Jamón serrano
- Mortadella
- ‘Nduja
Sweetness: fruit
We like adding at least one sweetness element to the cups, usually by adding fruit. For these cups, we use grapes, preferably seedless grapes if we can get some. These are especially easy as they don’t require any prep work. Here are some other ideas for fruit that you can use in your Charcuterie Cups:
- Dates
- Sliced figs
- Sliced apples
- Sliced pears
- Dried apricots
Acidity: everything pickled
To offset the sweetness and saltiness of the cups, we add some acidity, and we usually do this through pickled foods. We like to add a mini dill pickle to each cup; again, this reduces prep work as we just pop the pickle in the cup. We also include a pickled onion and a whole, pitted black olive to our skewers. Here are some other ideas for pickled food:
- Pickled peppers
- Pickled carrots
- Pickled tomatoes
- Pickled red onion
Other delicious additions
There’s nothing like rounding off a charcuterie cup with some little bits to garnish, and here are our suggestions;
- Almonds
- Walnuts
- Fresh herbs (like rosemary or thyme)
- Cherry tomatoes
Charcuterie Ideas: What do I put in a charcuterie cup?
Our number one rule is to try to add an assortment of flavor profiles and variety for anything charcuterie: sweetness, saltiness, acidity; at least two salty meats, at least two to three different kinds of cheese, fruits and a selection of pickled food.
Our second rule, specifically for Charcuterie Cups, is to add a skewer in each cup and to only include food that guests can eat with the skewer provided. This avoids the situation wherein guests have to stick their hands in their cups to eat the food.
You can also add crackers or breadsticks to the cups as a palate cleanser. We like to use breadsticks since this is easier to pick out of the cup.
Charcuterie Cups
These individual Charcuterie Cups are perfect party pleasers. They’re an assortment of meats, cheeses, pickled food and sweet fruit amongst other things. They’re rich, indulgent and can be beautifully arranged.
Cuisine
American
Serves
6
Prep
15 mins
Cook
15 mins
Total
30 mins
Calories
417 kcal
Ingredients
6 white pickled onions
6 pitted black olives
6 whole cherry tomatoes
6 mini mozzarella balls
6 skewers
6-12 grapes
6 halved cherry tomatoes
6 mini dill pickles
6-12 slices of brie
6-12 slices of stilton
12 cubes of mature cheddar
6-12 slices of salami
6-12 slices of prosciutto
Instructions
Add the 6-12 grapes, 6 halved cherry tomatoes and 6 mini dill pickles to the cups. Add 1-2 items of food to each cup.
Place the 6-12 slices of brie and stilton to the cups. Add 1-2 slices of every cheese to each cup. Try to lean the slices of cheese against the edge of the cup. Add 2 cubes of the 12 mature cheddar cubes to each cup.
Fold 6-12 slices of salami and prosciutto twice over. Add 1-2 folded slices of every meat to each cup.
Prepare the skewers by adding a white onion, a black olive, a cherry tomato and a mini ball of mozzarella to each skewer. Place the skewer in the cup and serve your beautiful, individual charcuterie cup.
Nutrition
- Calories 417 kcal |
- Carbohydrate Content 27.3 g |
- Cholesterol Content 63 mg |
- Fat Content 30.5 g |
- Fiber Content 2 g |
- Protein Content 20.2 g |
- Serving Size 1 portion |
- Sodium Content 1394 mg |
- Sugar Content 4.2 g |
About the author
Emma Donin is the culinary maestro behind this blog that serves as a melting pot of global cuisines and gastronomic adventures. Her culinary journey began in her grandmother's kitchen, where she learned the fundamentals of cooking and the importance of using fresh, quality ingredients.
