Cooler Board in a Cup
Salami, hard cheese, and dried fruit stacked into cups. No stove, no board, no serving platter.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 105
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Lunch
- No cook
- Cooler only
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Day hike
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Hard salami | 4 oz | sliced thin at the deli counter, not pre-cubed |
|---|---|---|
| Hard cheese | 5 oz | aged cheddar or gouda, cut into 1/2-inch cubes |
| Grapes or firm apple | 1 cup | apple holds up longer in a cooler than grapes do |
| Dried apricots or cranberries | 1/2 cup | |
| Olives or cornichons | 1/2 cup | drain them at home |
| Flaky salt and cracked pepper | a pinch each |
Method
- At home, cube the cheese and drain the olives. Pack each in its own bag.
- In camp, set out four cups. Wide-mouth plastic cups or the bottoms of nesting bowls both work.
- Fold each salami slice in quarters and stand three or four folds up along one side of the cup.
- Fill the rest with cheese cubes, fruit, and olives. Pack it tight so nothing rattles loose.
- Salt and pepper the top and hand them out. Toothpicks if you have them, fingers if you don't.
The original of this is a party platter, which does not survive a car trip. Cups fix that. Each person gets their own, nothing slides off, and there is no board to wash or wind to fight over. Assembly is the whole recipe.
Cube the cheese at home. Cutting hard cheese on a picnic table with a pocket knife is slow and produces a mess, and a sealed bag of cubes takes the cooler cold better than a block does. Everything else is layered dry, so the cups do not go soggy sitting out through an afternoon.
Packing
Everything goes into the cooler in separate zip bags, cheese and salami on the bottom near the ice. Cut fruit browns, so carry apples whole and slice at camp. This is a cooler recipe, not a backpacking one: without ice, the salami and cheese are good for a day and no longer.
Variations
- Swap the fruit for cucumber rounds and a squeeze of lemon when it is hot out.
- Crackers on the side instead of in the cup, so they stay dry.
- Vegetarian version: drop the salami, double the cheese, add marinated artichoke hearts.
https://mealswithmaria.site/elegant-no-cook-appetizers