Retailers, restaurants, suppliers and consumers have jumped on the butter board trend, a social media craze that has soared in popularity during the last several weeks.
The concept is credited to Joshua McFadden, a chef who described it in his book Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, and to Justine Doiron, a recipe creator who popularized it on social media, including TikTok. It involves spreading softened butter on a cutting board and sprinkling it with various ingredients, which can include herbs and spices, nuts, seeds, pieces of fruits and vegetables, edible flowers, and a range of other foods. It is often served with warm, sliced bread, which TikTok users seem to enjoy smearing directly though the butter.
Retailers have leveraged the popularity of the trend to promote not only their butters but many of the mix-ins that make the butter boards flavorful and visually appealing for Instagram and TikTok.
The South Philly Food Co-op, for example, recently posted a butter board recipe with a video on Instagram, tying it to a giveaway contest that encouraged users to create their own butter boards.
“I think the butter board trend is a fun way to share something unique with our South Philly community that encourages lots of creativity and use of fresh produce,” Kerri Sitrin, marketing and outreach manager at the member-owned retailer, told SFA News Daily. “It's also a recipe that encourages a community experience. It's the perfect sharing dish to invite friends and neighbors over to enjoy, and as a community-owned grocery store, we love any recipes that bring folks together over a shared meal.”
The co-op’s butter board recipe included unsalted butter from Vital Farms, Hound Dog Honey, lemon zest, pomegranate, Driscoll’s blackberries, pumpkin seeds from Woodstock Foods, arugula from Olivia’s Organics, and salt.
In its Instagram post, the retailer also encouraged customers to experiment with other ingredients, such as figs, oranges, rosemary, jams, radishes, basil, and garlic.
“We got a lot of engagement and excitement, but not a lot of participation,” Sitrin said of the contest.
Ohio retailer Jungle Jim’s also jumped on the butter board trend, touting its diverse array of butters in a TikTok video that showcases its “butter bar” display.
“Butters from all over the world,” the narrator says in the video, which circles the massive assortment of butters. “You name it, we probably carry it.”
He goes on to list some of the flavored butters, including maple syrup, garlic-parmesan, and cinnamon-sugar varieties, tying into the “butter board” trend at the end of the manic presentation. As of this week, the video, which includes the #butterboard hashtag, garnered about 147,000 views on TikTok.
Beaverton Farmers Market in Beaverton, Oregon, recently posted an essay on butter boards via social media, suggesting that customers use locally made butter from Lady Lane Farms, edible flowers from Campo Collective Farm or Cartwheel Community Farm, hot honey from TbeeS Honey, and other products from various vendors at the market.
“Clearly, the possibilities are endless, and as we approach the busy holiday season, we expect that butter boards, with their show-stopping potential, are going to be on the menus of many celebrations,” the market said in a statement.
The trend has also been picked up by restaurants and caterers, including some that specialize in charcuterie boards.
Among the restaurants that have recently added butter boards is Bright Side, a restaurant in Cleveland offering scratch-made American comfort food using local, seasonal ingredients. It now includes a butter board on its evening “snacks’ menu, along with a more traditional meat and cheese board.
The Bright Side butter board includes salted butter, shaved raw shallot, dried cherries, squash butter, flowers, fresh herbs and crunchy salt, served with leavened sourdough and whole wheat bread.
Several specialty food suppliers have also posted their recipe ideas for butter boards, including B&W Quality Growers, which suggests a watercress butter board made by blending its watercress into Kerrygold butter, spreading it on a cutting boards and then topping it with bacon, tomatoes, onions, sea salt, and raw watercress.
Others have suggested using cream cheese or other spreads instead of butter. BelGioso Cheese, for example, suggests using its Mascarpone spreadable cheese instead, noting that it pairs well with both sweet and savory ingredients.
While butter board videos have garnered millions of views on TikTok, the trend has plenty of critics as well, including several who have pointed out the food safety risks of spreading butter onto a wooden cutting board and sharing it with a group, especially in the wake of pandemic, many point out.
“Why the TikTok butter board trend is totally disgusting,” read the headline of a recent column in the Los Angeles Times.
Related: TikTok's Pink Sauce Brings Controversy; TikTok Trends' RIpple Effects.