The Art of the Board | Olivia Carney
Intro: Welcome to the number one cookbook podcast, Cookery By the Book, with Suzy Chase. She's just a home cook in New York City, sitting at her dining room table talking to cookbook authors.
Olivia Carney: Hi, my name's Olivia Carney and I'm the author of The Art of the Board.
Suzy Chase: Today on the Cookbook Show, we're all about boards and Thanksgiving. When you are hosting Thanksgiving, one of the easiest ways to elevate your tablescape is by including a well-planned, thoughtfully designed charcuterie or cheese board. It can be the traditional version of preserved meats or cheeses, or you can take the modern approach by using it to plate Thanksgiving leftovers, a great idea for Thanksgiving night, second dinner or the day after. So Olivia, let's build the Thanksgiving leftovers board together, and it is on page 105.
Olivia Carney: With this board, I promise you everyone will be around the table ready to eat up all those leftovers you have in the fridge. So I'm super excited to walk everyone through how to make this.
Suzy Chase: Okay, so there' are five steps to this. What's the first step?
Olivia Carney: Yes. So first step, find all the leftovers you have in there, and let's warm those up. Stuffing, we have leftover mashed sweet potatoes. There's some cranberry sauce, of course, some turkey breasts. So take all those, however you prefer to heat those up, whether that's the oven or the microwave, maybe it's the air fryer, whatever you use. Warm up all those leftovers and have them surrounding your board.
The next step is to place some bowls on the larger board so that you have places to put the mashed potatoes and the stuffing. So I use a medium bowl and a couple of smaller bowls for the cranberry sauce and maybe some mustard and mayonnaise for sandwiches. So make sure you place those ramekins right on the board to save those spots for the future. Once everything is heated up, you can go ahead and just fill those up. So I filled two smaller bowls with some mashed potatoes and the cranberry sauce. I filled a larger bowl with stuffing, and then I have two smaller little ramekins for some mustard and some mayonnaise. So those are on the board and they are staying put.
The next step we'll do is we'll add that turkey, because it's going to be the largest and probably the focal point of your board. Let's throw that on first. So I'll take that sliced turkey and I'll just kind of wrap that around nicely. I'll layer it one slice on top of each other and have it looking really clean and organized on the board, and probably place it right in the center so it's easy to grab for everybody. Then I'll put a couple of piles of rolls on the board, because for this board specifically, my family loves to make leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches. So this is all about taking all those great leftovers and putting it into one delicious sandwich. So I like the little sweet Hawaiian rolls, so I'll put a couple of little roll piles right on the board so you can pick them right off.
Next I'll add maybe a couple of extra things that I might have in the fridge, or if you want to just spice it up and grab a couple of nice cheeses from the grocery store. I place some cheeses right in the corner and some crackers are on the side, so you can mix and match. Try a couple of new things for your sandwich if you wish, or just add cheese to your sandwich. And then I might add some fruit. So I'll add some pomegranate, some grapes, some berries. There's so many leftovers in the fridge, you might already have them because the kids like to eat them during the day. So whatever you have on there to bring a little bit of color and sweetness to the board, go ahead and throw that right on there.
And then last I will just add some of the smaller elements that help fill in the board. So I'll add the lettuce, some nuts, some figs. They're really, really good this time of year. And then of course I'll garnish with some rosemary sprigs and then of course serve it with some gravy on the side. And then you have the perfect Thanksgiving leftovers board.
Suzy Chase: So I think this board is so versatile because if you're starving you can make a bunch of little sandwiches, but if you're not that hungry and you just want to nibble, you could have some cheese and crackers.
Olivia Carney: Oh my gosh, yes, it's the best. And it can be eaten throughout the night. My family, we have dinner at 2:00 PM and we do that specifically because we love second dinner. So it's so funny because this is something that we've done in my family for years, and it is such a fun tradition for us. And you can eat it just throughout the entire remainder of the night and enjoy your time with your family.
Suzy Chase: And on this particular recipe, you have one dot and one dollar sign. What does that mean?
Olivia Carney: One thing I really wanted to pull through the book was, how easy is this going to be for me to make and how expensive is this going to be for me to make? And so you'll see throughout the book, I use the dots as indicators of how difficult the board will be to make. And the dollar signs means how much are you going to have to invest in this board, right? Because those are really important factors when you're deciding what type of board you want to make.
So one dot for this board, the Thanksgiving leftovers board because you've already done all the work, all you have to do is pop these in the oven and the microwave and you're good to go. This is a no cook board, because you already did all the hard work. So that's why I have it as the easiest one you could do because everything's already made for you.
I also have it as inexpensive with one dollar sign because you've already spent all this money and all this time for the food for the holidays. So there's no more that you need to purchase. Just grab whatever's in your pantry, whatever's in your fridge, and throw it right on the board. So it's relatively inexpensive to make and relatively easy to make, too.
Suzy Chase: So on every one of your boards you have a little section called My Perfect Bite and Bottoms Up. With the Thanksgiving leftovers board, what is your perfect bite?
Olivia Carney: Yes. So my perfect bite is turkey, a spoonful of my grandma's potato stuffing, which is what is pictured here, lettuce, mayonnaise, and mustard on a sweet roll. So that is my perfect Thanksgiving sandwich and that's what I made for you guys there. And then Bottoms Up, I chose a full bodied brown a, which is really perfect for the dry nuttiness of the sandwich and all those great Thanksgiving warm heavy flavors. So that's what I chose to pair. So I love to include, my dad always has the Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale for Thanksgiving. So we always love to include that with this board.
Suzy Chase: So we know boards are beautiful and they're a crowd pleaser, but you talk about how they also bring people together around the table. Talk a little bit about that community aspect of boards.
Olivia Carney: It's amazing what a culmination of everybody around a table enjoying food can create, right? I love that these boards, cheese boards, food boards, candy boards, whatever it is, and encourage people to gather together around this board. And it sparks conversations. We've been separated for a few years now and so more than ever the idea of being connected and enjoying each other and being in each other's company is so important. And I think so many times we can just envision ourselves sitting around a beautiful display of food and be like, "Oh my goodness, did you try this? Try that cheese with this cracker or this jam." And I just think it's so beautiful, especially around the holidays, and that's what I love so much about them.
Suzy Chase: So you can even make a big beautiful dessert board. On page 106, you have a board called Thankful for Desserts. Could you walk us through the four steps?
Olivia Carney: Absolutely. I love that you picked these two and it's actually obviously the perfect time of year, but these are two of my favorite boards in the whole book. Not only because I just think they're so beautiful, but because I think they're so perfect and they're such an amazing way to create some fun around the holidays. So the Thankful for Desserts board, it can be as easy as or as difficult as you like. If you're a baker, you love to be in the kitchen making pies and donuts, then you can make all of your own desserts and make this an incredible board. If that's not you, that's totally fine too. That's not me. Everything I do is, how can I do something as quickly and easily as possible while adding a couple of special little flares within. So a lot of the stuff on this particular board I purchase, but there are a few things on here that you can make yourself if that's something that you choose to do.
So for this one, it's four really simple steps. So the one thing that I did choose to make it. So if you are someone that would prefer to go and purchase your pies and your donuts and your treats at the grocery store, one way to make it feel a little bit more homegrown is making your own whipped cream. So the first step is making your own pumpkin spice whipped cream. And you can add that to your pecan pie or your pumpkin pie or just dip your cookies in it. So I give you a recipe on how to make your own pumpkin spice whipped cream. Super, super easy. So the first step is making the pumpkin whipped cream and then placing it in a small bowl right directly onto the board. The next step is we're going to start assembling the rest of the ingredients. So we'll add anything that you purchase.
So for my board, I chose a pecan pie because my family loves pecan pie. I have these little mini pumpkin pies because that's my favorite. I have donuts and I have all kinds of other little holiday spiced Thanksgivingesque cookies on there. So the next step after I add some of those bigger elements of the pies and the donuts, I go into some of the smaller pieces. So the spice cookies, the ginger snaps, the orange slices, and I just kind of fan those organizers throughout the board making them look really clean and simple and inviting to pick up. And then lastly, I'll add little dollops of the whipped cream on some little pies. I'll garnish with maybe some fruits, some sliced oranges, some rosemary, little tiny pomegranate nuggets and just kind of make it look really fun and festive. So very super simple, but it really makes for a beautiful display.
Suzy Chase: Okay, talk about your pomegranate clusters that you use. They're so cute.
Olivia Carney: Oh, thank you so much. I love them. So they can be a little bit finicky. Everyone knows if you worked with pomegranates before, sometimes it's tough, but you can make the perfect little pomegranate clusters. All you have to do is take the pomegranate. You score around the back of the pomegranate on the peel side and reveal each of those fruit sections and you just pull it back. So we're not cutting it directly through the pomegranate, you're just peeling it back. And as you do that, you take those individual little pieces and just pull apart until you reveal these small little clusters. And you can pick the white skin out from each little piece, and you have these little tiny balls of pomegranate, very gentle practice. But if you do it enough times, it looks really, really pretty as a garnish.
Suzy Chase: They don't come out the same. Each one is a little bit different.
Olivia Carney: Yeah, it is. It's very rustic. It feels really natural and homey and yeah, they all have a little different look and I love that about them.
Suzy Chase: So with these two Thanksgiving boards, I noticed both had autumnal color palettes, browns and oranges and beiges. How should we be thinking about color?
Olivia Carney: I go very much by the mood. What's the event that I'm trying to build a board for? What's the holiday or celebration? We'll start there. And then I think about what flavors I want to pull through. So for these flavors, obviously it's that warm spiced holiday feel. You want rich colors with dark contrasts and things that pair really well with each other. And so a lot of that lends to this beautiful color palette that you get in the fall with pops of brightness from that red, like pomegranate for example. So really think about what feeling are you trying to create with your food? What are we celebrating today, and how can I pull that through everything I have on this board? And once you have that, then you can think about introducing those unique flavor combinations that are special around that season.
Suzy Chase: What's a good all around versatile board that's easy to clean and has adequate space?
Olivia Carney: My favorite board, my absolute go-to is a 12-inch round board. Typically a wood board, something that's already been treated because you can clean it off really easily and it's not going to stain. And preferably one that maybe comes up a little bit, has a little bit of curvature around the edge because that makes it a lot easier for you to travel with, especially around the holidays. So I would go 12-inch round board that's been treated previously so it's easy to clean and something that has an edge to it so that it's easy to travel without having things fall off the side.
Suzy Chase: How do you clean a wood board?
Olivia Carney: Oh my goodness, there's so many different ways to treat a wood board, and it's a really great question. Actually in the book I go into some detail about all the different types of woods, or not all the different types, but a lot of the most frequently used types of wood for cheese boards. So there's acacia, which is something that you'll typically see be used because it's so hardy. You'll see a lot in Targets and HomeGoods, a lot of those home stores because it lasts a long time and it's very beautiful. So you'll see acacia a lot.
You'll see teak, cherry, olive. Each and every one of those have different care techniques because they're all treated differently and they all have a different level of porous. So actually in the book I talk a little bit about each of those woods and what makes them unique and how to protect those. But I would say the biggest thing that you can do is one, make sure when you're washing them you're being very gentle, you're using a soft all natural soap to get food residue off. You're drying by hand and you're always treating with a wood oil after using the board, so you can just continue to see that beautiful shine on the wood for years and years to come.
Suzy Chase: Okay, I know this sounds funny, but I find one issue I have over and over again with making my boards look pretty is fanning out the crackers. Do you have any fanning tips?
Olivia Carney: Yes. It's so funny because I totally know what you're talking about, and that is one of the number one things I hear is the crackers and the charcuterie. How do I get my charcuterie to stand up? And so it's a great question. And I am very particular about the way I place my crackers, and you might see that in the book and in some of my tips. The fanning technique I think is really beautiful, and it's a way to make it look very organized and not messy on the board, which is so much about, it adds that aesthetic feel of your board.
So the fanning technique is really, really easy. You start from a center point. So say you have a handful of crackers. They might be longer, they could be square, they could be circle. Start from a center point and just kind of fan the crackers around maybe the edge of your board or around one of the ramekins or bowls you have on there. And just placing one on top of the other and keeping them tighter in that center. It kind of gives it this really pretty fanning look or this very organized cracker ribbon from the top of your board to the bottom of your board.
So that's a really good way to do it. And if you didn't want to take up too much of your space, that precious, precious space on your board, you could always do a completely different board or basket full of carbs. So you have breads, you have breadsticks, you have crackers, something a little more rustic, and also so that you can fit a lot more crackers on the table.
Suzy Chase: That is a relief to hear, that I could just put the crackers into a little bowl and put it on the side.
Olivia Carney: Absolutely. Put it off to the side, tuck a couple in there just for the texture and throw the rest off to the side. You absolutely can do that.
Suzy Chase: Now why is garnishing so important, and what are your go-to garnishes?
Olivia Carney: I love garnishing. Truly and honestly, it's one of my favorite parts about making the board, for a couple of reasons. One, it is so, so beautiful. It really helps pull through that theme that you're trying to create, while also adding a different flavor component that you might not have initially tried. They're all edible, right? So there's so many different garnishes you can do, and at the end of the day we eat with our eyes first and those garnishes really are such a pop of color and a pop of texture and they're really important to incorporate onto your board.
My favorite garnishing, if I'm going to choose herbs, it depends on the season. I love rosemary in the winter months and in the fall months, because they kind of simulate that idea of that Christmas tree. Thyme is very beautiful. Oregano is a super leafy herb that I think most people don't think about, but it's very beautiful on a board. And in the summer I love to incorporate mint because it's super delicious with cheese and it's also a beautiful green color. And if you want to get a little fancy, of course you can always incorporate the edible flowers, which are insanely beautiful, and there's a ton of different ones during different times of the year that are very fun to incorporate. So those are probably my top ones.
Suzy Chase: And I noticed you used green leaf lettuce. I've never thought of that.
Olivia Carney: Yes. I always try to find not only food that of course tastes good, it has to complement one another, there needs to be unique flavor combinations that make every bite special, but things that are enticing or interesting to you, because they should catch your eye and get you to want to try something different. So yeah, even having that green leafy lettuce on there, maybe for the vegan board or any of the other boards, it's a great fun different garnish add on to the board.
Suzy Chase: I always like a garnish that fills in the big gaps that I inevitably have.
Olivia Carney: It's important, and they absolutely do that. That and nuts, so the best gap fillers you could have.
Suzy Chase: Tell me about your hopeless hostess tips.
Olivia Carney: Yeah, so the hopeless hostess tips are throughout the entire book, and they're kind of like a look into my brain. I've been doing this for so, so long, and so one thing I really wanted to pull throughout the book is, what are those little tiny clips of information that you might not normally see within my social platform, but it's something that I am processing through my brain as I'm making this board. So you'll see them, there's probably over 100 throughout the book and they're just kind of jotted on the side of a recipe. And they talk a little bit about, "Hey, when you're doing this, think about making it in this shape, or try to leave this cook for this amount of time and do it this way." So it's helping you to really create exactly what you're seeing on that page, and just things that you might not necessarily be thinking about through when you're going through the recipe for the first time.
Suzy Chase: Last week Tasting Table did a survey of people's favorite meat to feature on the charcuterie board, and number one was pepperoni. It was the hands-down favorite. And I would've said prosciutto, but it wasn't. But prosciutto was second and third was chorizo. What is your favorite?
Olivia Carney: That is actually very funny. Pepperoni is my dad's favorite as well. I would've probably guessed prosciutto would've been first, too. My two favorites are not on that top list of three. I actually love Sobrassada, which is a dry salami, but it has these larger sections of fat because it's ground up a lot more coarsely than some of the other varieties of salami. So it's really decadent and delicious. And the other one that I think gets looked over a little bit, but I personally love it. I mean it's great for people that do not eat pork. It's called Bresaola, which is an air dried, salted beef. So it's a salty cured beef, and it's delicious. It's so good. It's like the non pork version of prosciutto if you wanted to have an alternative, and it's one of my favorite charcuteries to have on the plate.
Suzy Chase: Last but not least, I have to ask you about the whole butter board trend. Love it or hate it?
Olivia Carney: Love it.
Suzy Chase: What?
Olivia Carney: Absolutely love it. I know.
Suzy Chase: I'm so disappointed in you, Olivia.
Olivia Carney: I feel like it's such a polarizing topic. I want to hear your opinion, too. Let me tell you why I love it. Because the art of a beautiful piece of bread with butter is lost. There is nothing better than a delicious piece of warm bread with butter on it. And I love that. And so when I saw that, I was like, this is very fun. It also made me go try better butter, because I usually will buy the cheapest butter I can find. I found the fancy butter and I made a really fun cranberry compote. It's like a cranberry red wine reduction with cinnamon and all these good spices. I toasted rosemary. It was truthfully heavenly. I took it to my fiance's dad's 60th birthday party and it was a hit, it truly was. And I had a blast making it. So that's why I love it. But I very much want to hear your opinion too.
Suzy Chase: Okay, I do have to say, I love me some bread and butter. So that said, I do think there's so much double dipping going on on the butter board, it makes it really gross on Instagram. I was like, "Ew, all these people are just biting off a piece of bread and then going back into the butter.",
Olivia Carney: I couldn't agree more with you there. Fully a hundred percent agree. We have to be serving the butter board with butter knives and you cannot be going back for the double dip. I couldn't agree more. So I did serve my butter board with knives. Also, I think one other important thing to consider if you did want to make one is, choose the right surface. You shouldn't probably put butter on a wood board that's going to lose its temperature for long periods of time. Maybe choose like a marble board or a slate board, something that's going to remain a little bit cooler in temperature. You can have that in the fridge until you're ready to take it out and it's going to hold that temperature of the butter for longer. So food safety as well. But I totally hear you on the cleanliness aspect. No double dippers.
Suzy Chase: Okay, here's our takeaway. Use butter knives with the butter board.
Olivia Carney: Yes, absolutely.
Suzy Chase: Now to my segment called I Could Keep Eating, where I ask you what one food you could just keep eating and eating. And since this is a Thanksgiving themed episode, what is one Thanksgiving thing you could just keep eating and eating? And for me it's pecan pie.
Olivia Carney: Oh, love that. And I'm going to go in the same vein. It's candied pecans, because I love them. I could eat them for days. So that is mine as well.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Olivia Carney: You can find me on Instagram and TikTok at Charcuterie.Chick, and you'll see on there, it says Liv, charcuterie.chick on my website, which is actually currently under construction. So you can't find me there yet. But follow me on Instagram and on TikTok and I will announce when my new website is live.
Suzy Chase: It's Thanksgiving and there's no better time to try out a board from The Art of the Board, and your guests are going to love it. Thanks so much, Olivia, for coming on Cookery By the Book podcast, and happy Thanksgiving.
Olivia Carney: Thanks Suzy, you too.
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