It’s entirely likely that the first food one human served to another was some meat, nuts and berries on a rock … in other words, a charcuterie board. Of course, we’ve advanced since those days—now it’s a lovely prosciutto with some pistachios and perhaps a nice wheel of Brie laid out on a polished marble slab.

“We like to encourage our customers to buy a bunch of stuff and try it at home. We can teach them to cut it like this or pair it with that, but they can just have fun at home making their board,” says Janell Fama, general manager of Cured & Whey (curedandwhey.com). She notes that “charcuterie board” technically just means meat but is usually understood to mean an array of meats, cheeses, bread and assorted condiments.

But when assembling your board, the meat is where you begin—start with a classic salami variety, or add a dry-cured pork like prosciutto or ham. You can go further afield with pate, which comes in vegetarian varieties for non-carnivores.

Next up, your cheeses, which should be a variety of flavors and textures. There are soft cheeses like Brie or burrata, semi-soft such as havarti or fontina and firm cheeses, which include cheddar or gouda. Another way to ensure variety is to consider where the cheese comes from. “We always try to give you at least one of each type of milk cheese—a cow, a goat and a sheep’s milk cheese,” says Fama.

While meat and cheeses are the essence of a board, what elevates it are the extras. “We always make sure there’s some briny items to cut through the bitterness. We make sure there’s something sweet, like fruits or honey,” explains Fama. These extras can be a complementary topping or eaten solo, allowing people to tweak their taste journey with a swipe of sweet preserves or a bite of salty-sharp gherkin.

Of course, your meat and cheese needs a vehicle—crackers, crisps, sliced baguette or apple, anything that can be held in the hand and used to stack or scoop. But beyond the basics, you can be as creative and personal with your board as you like—add cookies, nuts, candied fruit, whatever appeals and is floating around in your kitchen.

“There’s no right or wrong way to make a cheese board,” says Fama. “Just have fun, have an imagination, try something different and just enjoy everything you have on there.