Charcuterie boards are so old-school. Impress your guests with a butter board instead, courtesy of the latest viral food trend on TikTok. What’s a butter board? Pretty much what it sounds like. Take a wooden charcuterie board and slather thick globs of butter on it. Get creative with toppings. Serve with a side of bread.
In case you’re curious about the origin of the trend, it took off when recipe developer Justine Doiron posted a beautiful butter board on her TikTok account, @justine_snacks. She was inspired by chef Joshua McFadden’s cookbook, “Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables,” in which he shared a herbed butter recipe.
Justine’s version featured shallots, fresh herbs, lemon, salt and warm honey, but there are countless butter board variations. Here’s how to make your own and wow your friends (and followers, because, let’s face it – you’re going to want to share the fruits of your labor with the world).
Use Fancy Butter
Since butter is the star of the show here, you may want to splurge on something a little more special than your average grocery store butter. There’s nothing wrong with using regular butter to make a board, but salted grass-fed or cultured butter can elevate the flavors of your spread.
According to Food Republic, grass-fed butter will provide a yellower hue and a more vibrant, grassy flavor while cultured butter will taste extra buttery and have a bit of a tang. There’s also goat butter if you want to try something different.
Let It Soften
Before assembling your board, let your butter sit at room temperature until it gets soft enough for spreading (not melted though). You can watch lots of TikTok videos of butter boards for inspiration while waiting. Be careful – they’re addicting.
Like this decadent version with bacon:
Or this fig-nut-honey combo:
And this Desi twist served with Naan bread:
Create Pretty Swirls
One does not merely smear butter on a charcuterie board and call it a TikTok butter board. You need to create pretty swirls. Use a butter knife to swirl the butter around. It’s not an exact science by any means, so have fun with it. The goal is to create a visually appealing texture.
Mix And Match Toppings
Sweet, salty, tangy, spicy, crunchy – you can get really creative with your toppings. Keep things interesting by mixing and matching flavors and textures. Lemon zest, coarse sea salt, goat cheese, maple syrup, nuts…the possibilities are endless.
Draw inspiration from your favorite types of cuisine as far as what ingredients go well together. For example, the board below is Italian-inspired and features pesto, Stracciatella cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic glaze, and toasted pine nuts.
There you have it. You’re ready to create your own TikTok-worthy butter board. Just one word of caution: some people get really freaked out by double dipping, so it’s a good idea to serve it with butter knives.
