4th of July Charcuterie Board, the Most Patriotic

Here's everything you need to build your own red, white and blue cheese and charcuterie board for Memorial Day, Flag Day, the Fourth of July, Election Day, or any other occasion where a patriotic All-American board would be fitting. Shall we?

It took a little time to put this Red White and Blue Charcuterie Board together because other than blue cheese and the very obvious and ubiquitous blueberries, naturally blue/black/purple foods without artifical food coloring are limited. But we found them all because we are dedicated to the cause and are sharing them with you!

Jump to:

• Red, White, and Blue Ingredients for a 4th of July Charcuterie Board
• Ingredients Notes and Resources, by Color
• 4th of July Charcuterie Board Grocery Shopping List
• More Spring and Summer Holiday Boards
• Red, White, and Blue Charcuterie Board Recipe

Red, White, and Blue Ingredients for a 4th of July Charcuterie Board

You will need all the usual ingredients for an epic cheese and charcuterie board, just naturally colored red, white, and blue.

• Charcuterie, which will all be red
• Cheese, almost all of which will be white
• Fresh fruits and vegetables, red and blue
• Crackers
• Dried fruit
• Nuts
• Pickles and other briny accompaniments
• Sweet spreads or honey

Feel free to copy, paste, print and share these lists for your personal use! If you re-publish any part of this post on your blog or website, please credit and link back to this page. No part of this post is for commercial use.

Ingredients Notes and Resources, by Color

Cheese and Charcuterie for Charcuterie Board

• Charcuterie. Anything goes. My favorites are always a spicy soppresata, genoa salami, and cappacola. There are so many artisan makers out there, find one who is local to you!
• Red Cheese. There are no cheeses (that I know) that are obviously red, only a few with red rinds that are generally not edible. Manchego, a sheep's milk cheese that has origins in Spain, comes in a version with a red rind, though the cheese itself is white. Keep the rind on the cheese when serving. Drunken Goat is a goat's milk cheese, and though it's not red, it suggests "red" because it is washed in red wine. Some types of Gouda, a familiar cow's milk cheese, have a red rind made of inedible wax. One way to serve Gouda is to leave the rind whole, slice or crumble the interior cheese, and reassemble within the rind as its container.
• White Cheese with Red Garnish. If you are having trouble sourcing red cheese, use a brie or other small round cheese with a bloomy rind and pile some berries, dried cherries, or edible flowers on top.

Red Fruit, Vegetables and Jams for Charcuterie Board

• Raspberries and Strawberries. Obviously. I like Pudwil's berries from the southern California Farmers' Markets, and Harry's Berries for strawberries. But you can get both raspberries and strawberries from regular markets.
• Apples. I cannot eat any apple other than Fuji apples. Because apples are such perfect complements to cheese, the best way to serve any apple is in thin slices that can be added to a cracker or used as a "cracker" itself with cheese.
• Red Grapes. Pro-tip: cut large bunches of grapes into small clusters that diners can take and eat out of hand, similar to pomegranate clusters.
• Pomegranate. Serve pomegranates in large pieces broken from a whole fruit (as pictured) so guests can take a cluster from the board to their plate/napkin. DO NOT serve pomegrante arils in a bowl, unless it's VERY obvious to use a serving spoon. The last thing you want is for people to reach into a bowl of pomegranate arils and touch everything like it's a bowl of popcorn. Ew.
• Tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are ideal for boards. Larger tomatoes that require slicing can weep their ripe juices onto the board and get messy, so make sure to place them strategically between other items that can "dam" in their juices.
• Red Mini Bell Peppers. These are as far as red "vegetables" go, with tomatoes, and radishes. Take what you can get.
• Red Radishes. Scrub round red radishes well, leave a tiny bit of stem as a "handle," and cut into quarters or halves, which serves double duty to keep the radishes from rolling around (and sometimes completely off!) your board, and also makes it easier for people to grab without unnecessarily touching a lot of other things.
• Watermelon. Watermelon tends to weep their juices all over the board, so follow the rules for tomatoes.

Red Dried Fruits, Jams, and Pickles

• Dried Tart Cherries and Cranberries. I buy these two dried fruits in packages from Whole Foods. You only need to choose one or the other. In the summer, if you can opt for fresh cherries, add dried cranberries.
• Red Walnuts. Red walnuts are a specialty variety of walnuts that are available in the fall at some farmers' market in California, but you can also get them packaged from the usual place.
• Sweet Drop Peppers or Peppadew Peppers (not pictured). Sweet Drop Peppers are tiny tear drop shaped, subtly smoky, slightly spicy pickled peppers. The two most common brands in jars are DeLallo and Les Trois Cochons. They are my FAVORITE but I limit myself because I can eat an entire jar by myself in one sitting. Peppadew peppers are larger, round, thin-skinned and fairly mild bright red peppers. I used to get these from the self-serve olive and antipasti bar at Whole Foods or natural foods markets, but now buy them in the same department of the grocery store packaged by the store in to-go containers, and increasingly in jars in the same aisle where olives are. 
• Red Cerignola Olives. I said I generally stay away from foods that are dyed, but these olives are an exception because we already eat dyed olives; black olives are naturally green! Red olives are not always available, so they are not pictured on these boards, but you can peep them here. TBH, if you have black/purple olives, there isn't a real need for red olives, especially if you have red pickled peppers.
• Red Berry or Sour Cherry Jam. I am currently having a love affair with Sour Cherry Jam by Dalmatia. The brand Divina has a sour cherry jam as well.

White Ingredients for Charcuterie Board

• Cheese. Cheese is naturally white because guess what, milk, from any animal from which we get cheese, is white. Pick your favorites. MESSAGE ME for CHEESE RECS, as my favorites change all the time, and also, making a rec is more accurate if I know what you don't like. Though I tend to avoid "decor" on my boards, using a star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out stars from slices of white Cheddar, provolone, or Monterey Jack seems cute.
• White Vegetables. I did not include white vegetables on the boards pictured here for no other reason than they didn't fit. However, if you have the space, or want to go "lighter" with more vegetable crudites, add cauliflower, endive, fennel, jicama, and radish.
• Nuts. Marcona almonds are visually the most "white," but raw cashews can appear fairly light, too. 
• Simple White Crackers. My favorite is the sprouted grain Mini Croccantini, but they have a pretty wide variety of flavors.
• Gluten-free Crackers. It's usually a thoughtful move to offer a gluten-free cracker option. These gluten-free crisps by 34 Degrees are made with chickpea and rice flours. Super light. 
• Star-shaped Crackers. Info on these star-shaped crackers is probably one of the most-requested items. The crackers are made by Valley Lahvosh. They are available in the deli sections of chain grocery stores. Stores often sell-out before a holiday, so stock up a couple of weeks early.

Blue Ingredients for Charcuterie Board

• True Blue Cheese. You should probably limit the cheeses in the Blue section to one, if any at all. True blue cheese, the funky, ripe cheeses with blue mold, can be a little intense for some people.
• Humboldt Fog is not technically a blue cheese, but it has a blue-hued line of vegetable ash. It is one of my favorite cheeses. Capriole "Sofia" is a similar ripened goat cheese with a bloomy rind, but is formed in a 3-dimensional trapezoid shape, so it's interesting looking on a board. If you go with a true blue, my favorite is gorgonzola dolce.
• Blackberries and Blueberries. Blue foods are hard to find. All we have are blackberries and blueberries, which arent even really blue, they're purple. Every single table will have blueberries on it during the RWB holidays.
• Black and Purple Grapes. Same as above.
• Figs. Figs are fattest and sweetest very late in the summer, but if you're lucky, you can find black mission or other black/purple figs during the RWB holidays at the grocery store. Dried figs and prunes work, too!
• Purple Olives. There are purple cerignola olives, which have the same notes as Red Cerignola Olives above. Kalamata olives can appear pretty bluish-purple, too.
• Fig Olive Crackers. You know the ones. I chose Fig and Olive flavor because "figs" sound the most blue to me. 
• Prune Jam made with sweet purple prunes and cut with pinot noir.

All other fresh fruit and vegetables I get first from the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers' market. Whatever I can't find there, I supplement with produce from Bristol Farms and Whole Foods, which are grocery stores both in southern California.

Ideas for Red White and Blue Snacks

There are many other small, snackable red, white, and blue things you can put on a board. Here are some ideas:

• seasonal red (usually dyed), white, and blue corn tortilla chips
• red (beet-dyed), white and natural blue potato chips
• white snacks like chicharrones
• popcorn

Use these to fill in gaps if you have to! Though I encourage you to just fill in gaps with more cheese.

4th of July Charcuterie Board Grocery Shopping List

Tools and Equipment

• extra large 28x16-inch wooden board
• best large 20x15 cutting board that works well as a cheese board
• if you don't have a board, use a sturdy all-purpose baking sheet
• round wooden board, 3 diff sizes 12-inch to 18-inch diameter
• favorite all-purpose 7-inch chef's knife (expensive but worth it!)
• multi-purpose small condiment bowls for dressings, olives, and pickles
• I have a gajillion of these tiny spoons for dips, dressings and spreads on boards
• salad spinner to wash and prep fruit and vegetables
• this produce/vege wash to clean produce

More Spring and Summer Holiday Boards

• All Avocado "Avocuterie" Board
• California Grapes Summer Cheese Board
• Epic Mediterranean Mezze Board
• Green Goddess Crudites Board
• Rainbow Fruit Popsicle and Paletas Board