Everyone loves a good charcuterie board nowadays -- a nice arrangement of fruit, cheese, nuts, crackers and meat -- and the popularity of these plates is now giving rise to new shareable snack boards.
Enter butter boards.
The trend began on TikTok in late 2022 when Brooklyn-based cook Justine Doiron posted a video in which she said she wanted to make butter boards "the next charcuterie." That video now sits at over 8 million views as butter boards spread far and wide.
"We do them for holidays and all that," says Matt Vandergriff, owner of The Chattanooga Butter Company. "That was kind of the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving this past holiday season."
A butter board is essentially what it sounds like: a board that features a variety of softened butters topped with seasonings and flavorings such as sea salt, lemon zest, bee pollen, fresh thyme or anything else its creator desires. The dish is then served with warm bread. Though the butter board trend is still emerging, it is already inspiring the next wave of shareable snack boards, which includes a number of spreadable edibles such as cream cheese, peanut butter and frostings.
If you'd like to give your butter board a local flair, there are a couple local options for artisan butters.
"We've even gone a step further and added the coconut oil in there to kind of give it a little bit more spreadability," Vandergriff says.
Ready to build your butter board better? Here are just a few flavors you’ll find at The Chattanooga Butter Company available online at chattanoogabutter.com.
> honey and cinnamon butter
> sweet tea butter
> strawberry butter
> sriracha, shallot scallion butter
> roasted garlic butter