the.com/charcuterie
A cheese board with a law degree and a French accent.
means A selection of cured meats (and usually cheeses, pickles, and bread) arranged for eating — originally just the cured-meat part, now the whole fancy spread.
from From French charcuterie, built from chair cuite — 'cooked flesh' — tracing back to the medieval guilds of the charcutier, pork-sellers licensed to sell cooked and cured pig products (sausages, pâtés, hams) while raw meat stayed the butcher's domain. The trade and its name spread through French culinary tradition before the word crossed into English, where it eventually loosened its grip on 'pork specifically' and widened out to cover any artful board of cured meats.
- origin
- French for cooked meat, chair cuite
- original purpose
- preserving pork before refrigeration existed
- modern reality
- expensive excuse to eat meat with hands
- board math
- always too much for the guest count