Cookie Cutters Are Key To Making A Fourth Of July-Inspired Charcuterie Board

With all the heavier burgers and dogs commonly found at a Fourth of July celebration, it can be a breath of fresh air to witness a creative charcuterie board with lighter finger food like fruits and cheeses for grazing galore. These snack platters are simple at their core, but putting one together that amazes your guests takes some careful planning. 

One ingenious way to create an eye-catching Fourth of July-themed charcuterie board is detailed by TikTok user @sbkliving. The social media user shows how they use a star-shaped cookie cutter to create a lively patriotic scene with cheese, fruits, and deli meat.

@sbkliving

4th of July charcuterie with all the red, white and blue!🇺🇸 Make your eats festive this holiday and take it up a knotch by using STAR cookie cutters⭐️⭐️Here's how I styled my board! Linking my board (Walmart find), star cutters, stripe runner, American flag toothpicks and wicker stars over on my LTK shop and recipe blog post! Link in bio🎇🎇🎇 #4thofjulycharcuterie #4thofjulyfood #4thofjulyeats #4thofjulyfoodideas #4thofjulydecor #4thofjulyrecipe

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The video received an abundance of praise in the comments section, with one user cheekily dubbing the creator's spread a "starcuterie" board. While the stars are striking, another aspect that helps bring this platter together visually is the color coordination of red, white, and blue that the user implements into their design. When assembling a stunning Fourth of July charcuterie board, keeping the color scheme consistent will go a long way to impressing guests who lay eyes on it, and you can use other cookie cutter shapes to assist you while adding some flair. 

With the Fourth of July you obviously want to focus on the red, white, and blue color scheme. For red, beyond fruits like melon and berries, look to cured meats like pepperoni or capicola to cut shapes from or fold them into little rosettes. Putting out white ingredients can be accomplished with cheeses like mozzarella and provolone — or fancier cheeses if you're so inclined. Crackers add not just the white but a much needed crunch factor, and are a vehicle for cheeses and meats. If you don't feel like kneading out your own cracker dough, Valley Lahvosh has your board covered with star crackers. 

Blue food requires a little thinking outside the box. Blueberries and Concord grapes fit the bill as far as color goes, but you can't really do much with them other than lay them out on the tray. If you want to use cookie cutters to create festive blue shapes, try using blue cornmeal as a natural food coloring in your favorite cornbread recipe and cut out Statue of Liberty-styled pieces. Or add something sweeter to your board and cut nationalistic patterns out of a blue Jell-O mold. 

With all three colors and an alphabet cookie cutter set, you can spell out "USA" on your charcuterie board as a centerpiece surrounded by festively shaped foods. However, though color coordination is key to making the platter visually appealing, you also want to consider putting out foods that complement each other flavor-wise.

Though the name charcuterie suggests meat, a simple fruit and cheese pairing will be a treat for the vegetarians at your hangout, and it can play right into the theme. This watermelon, feta cheese, and blueberry configuration on a bed of arugula (for easy picking and to mop up the juice) builds a fine stars and stripes banner indeed. 

But we suggest building out the arrangement with more shape variety. This 4th of July Cookie Cutter Set gives your board much more than stars (though it has those too, in two sizes), with a bald eagle, top hat, the lower 48 states, the Statue of Liberty, a badge, and a flag. If you want even more patriotic shapes too choose from, check here. Shape up other soft fruit fruits like pineapple, apple slices dipped in Sprite, and other melon varieties. And practically any semisoft cheese, like mozzarella, Gorgonzola, manchego, Gouda, and Stilton will work fine. 

It's also a good idea to set out a few condiments that will correlate to the flavors on your charcuterie board.Honey is an ingredient that goes well with many different cheeses and fruits, and some nuts can elevate the taste of your patriotic shapes. Pick out your guests' favorites and watch their faces light up with amazement at your festive creation before the fireworks call for an end to the celebration.