A mail-order charcuterie kit from Platterful is one of the easiest foodie gifts you can send, because the cheese, meat, crackers and spreads arrive already chosen and all the recipient has to do is build the board. Platterful sent us a kit to try and I really enjoyed it, but every box like it has the same gap: it can't be personal. Here's how to add one or two things yourself, from a favorite creamery to a bottle from a shared trip, so the gift says it came from you.
Start with what the kit already covers, then add the pieces only you know about. If you want to build a board from scratch instead, our guide to creating the perfect charcuterie platter for a Sonoma County wine tasting walks through it, and Platterful also made our list of holiday sides and desserts you can order online. The large Platterful Charcuterie Kit packs three cheeses, two meats, one or two packs of crackers, two or three spreads and at least three extras like dried fruit, olives, candied nuts or chocolate. It arrives on ice packs with an instruction sheet and a video tutorial, and it feeds six to eight as an appetizer or two to four as a meal. Platterful also donates 10 meals to fight childhood hunger in the U.S. for every box sold. Master backyard grilling pest control with expert tips for keeping rodents, insects and pests away from your outdoor cooking. Includes grill maintenance, natural deterrents & product recommendations. Montana Knife Company's Meat Church 6-inch chef knife uses Magnacut steel for BBQ prep and precision cutting. Real-world testing shows why this compact blade outperforms larger knives for trimming bri Weber Spirit E-435 liquid propane gas grill, a spacious four-burner choice for backyard cooks who grill often. Promoted by FlowAds The reason it works as a gift is that it takes the thinking and planning out of shopping for the foodie in your life. The cheeses, crackers and spreads arrive already matched, and the selections in the kit we tried were well curated. Shop now on Platterful A company shipping cheese and cured meat nationwide can't keep hundreds of different perishable items on the shelf, so every customer gets a version of the same box. That's a fair trade for the convenience, and I get why they do it. Why we picked it: a screen big and bright enough to double as a photo frame, a titanium and sapphire build that came through a month of daily wear without a scratch, and battery life that still runs weeks between charges. Promoted by FlowAds For anyone who has traveled the country, though, the best food memories are specific: a blue cheese from a creamery you drove out of your way to visit, a sweet treat from a chocolate shop you visited on a road trip somewhere far away, the cherry everything you ate on a guys trip up north. A curated food gift box can't know those stories, but you can buy those pieces separately and add them on your own (or send it to your giftee so they can do it). The easiest add-ons fall into a few groups: olives, fruit, nuts, chocolate, cheese, meat, bread, and a craft drink like wine, cider or beer. Pick one or two that mean something to you or the person you're sending it to. You should create a list of your favorite places and sites like Goldbelly can be a great start, but I prefer to buy direct when possible. So let's take the Platterful charcouterie board as a base - it was honestly quite excellent but since you can't pick and choose it's more of "what they selected for you". Turn the table a bit and order that charcuterie kit, plus something special from a local or regional place. For example, sending some Hopyard Cheddar or Red Hawk to go along with the board suddenly turns it into something personal and unique that evokes memories that someone else's curation never will. One or two items is enough, as long as the recipient opens the box and recognizes the cheese from that road trip, or the oil you keep telling them about. If shipping costs are prohibitive, it's likely that you can find something from a local cheese, wine, or specialty food shop that can be quickly delivered. When one add-on won't cover it, send a complementary box from another company or have a local shop deliver the rest. Tonight for instance I also had a sample sent from Tropical Fruit Box, a small business in Miami that ships tropical and exotic fruit, including a Sweet Tamarind box that starts at $49 for three pounds. They sent us a box of fruit, and we had a blast cracking open the sweet tamarind, pink pineapple, and mango to eat with our Platterful sample. A local cheesemonger or specialty food store near the recipient is the other option. Some offer their own local delivery or take orders through DoorDash, so if your brother-in-law loves mangos you can have a few ripe ones delivered the day his board arrives. Ask the shop what pairs with the kit's cheeses while you have them on the phone. If the budget or the recipient's location makes another food shipment impractical, look up their favorite wine, beer, spirit, mead or cider instead. Have a couple of bottles delivered through Uber Eats or DoorDash, or call their local wine shop. For instance, let's say your buddy loves Sonoma - it's difficult to create a fully authentic Sonoma County charcuterie platter with only Sonoma products through a charcuterie board service like Platterful, but you can send a couple of bottles from Alexander Valley Vineyards or a few beers from Russian River Brewing to bring back the memories of that guys trip through Sonoma wine country. The same works for a Northern Michigan guys trip: send a box of Cherry Republic Boomchunka cookies, made with dried cherries and white chocolate, and a bottle of cherry wine or Cherry Vodka from Grand Traverse Distillery. A gift basket or a charcuterie kit like those from Platterful makes a great gift on its own. Someone with good taste already did the shopping, and it shows up ready to share without worrying about it being just a random shopping basket of items. What makes it the perfect gift for a foodie is the one thing no curated box can include: a piece of the social history you share with the recipient. So add that piece, and tell them why it's there. Tuck a card in with the kit, or text one the day it arrives, listing each extra and the memory behind it: the blue cheese from the road trip, the cherry wine from that weekend up north, the garlic oil for the bread because you know they'll double-dip. That's how you can take your 9/10 awesome gift and take it to 11! Promoted by FlowAds
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