If you’re one who lives to eat and not eat to live, you’ve probably dabbled with, or even made charcuterie boards, breakfast boards and dessert boards.
In recent weeks however, there’s a new kind of board that’s taking TikTok and Instagram by storm and it involves an ingredient most common to humans — butter boards.
What is a butter board?
As the name suggests, this latest food trend requires you to have two main items, that is a board and some butter.
Once you have those, all you need to do is to spread the board with a generous amount of softened butter and pair it with high quality bread and/or crackers.
The butter can either be plain or jazzed up with exciting flavours such as bacon-bourbon, lemon-basil, cinnamon-honey or apple.
As it is with most food trends, looks are equally as important for butter boards, where you can decorate it with any type of toppings you like — jam, honey, edible flowers, salt, goat cheese, nuts, fruits, and even meat.
You can also choose what pattern the butter should be spread to make the entire board look as appealing as possible.
Where did it come from?
If you’re scratching your head and wondering where this rather unusual food trend came from, you’d be surprised to know that the Covid-19 pandemic was actually the driving force behind its rise.
According to a New York Times article, butter boards are a sign of the return of communal dining that was halted for two and half years courtesy of the pandemic and also “a sign of forthcoming feasts”.
Aside from Covid-19, a New-York based cook named Justine Doiron further brought the trend into the limelight with an Instagram reel that has racked up millions of views, where she boldly declared that wants to make it “the next charcuterie board”.
In the reel however, she gave credit to a chef from Portland, Oregon named Joshua McFadden as the original mind behind butter boards, which he first unveiled in his 2017 cookbook “Six Seasons“, co-authored by Martha Holmberg.
How do you make one?
While placing butter on a board seems simple enough, the main point of butter boards is to make it as aesthetically and better tasting as possible.
According to Doiron, the butter should be softened but not too melty. To achieve this, she suggests mixing your butter in a separate bowl to help it soften, where its consistency should resemble peanut butter.
As for the toppings, crusty bread like sourdough or baguettes are the go-to ingredients. You can also experiment with the butter’s texture by adding various grains or salts to it.
Whatever ingredients you use for your butter board, bear in mind that it should be visually appealing enough to entice your visitors.
Now that you’ve known how to make butter boards, why not give it a try and serve it to your guests at the next dinner gathering?
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