The Internet has been buzzing with the #butterboard trend. First mentioned in a 2017 cookbook by Joshua McFadden, the butter board has suddenly shot to popularity. McFadden, in his book- Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables- mentioned the butter board as a way to enjoy crisp, freshly cut veggies by fusing their taste with flavoured butter spread across a wooden board.
Butter boards draw inspiration from French charcuterie boards, which usually refer to elaborate settings of a variety of cheese slices or blocks, curated portions of meat, vegetable sticks, crackers, and dips or sauces. However, butter boards resemble cheese boards more closely. These feature cheese products more dominantly, as compared to charcuterie boards, which focus on meats.
To make a butter board, one only needs to smear a wooden board with butter and sprinkle it with condiments of choice, bits of fruits, spices, vegetables, and herbs. These boards are often served with bread or food similar to bread. The idea is to scrape the butter with bread and eat it. This is supposed to be for community eating. The trend has now diversified, with people experimenting with other spreads such as peanut butter, vegemite, hummus, Nutella, chocolate, etc.
There seem to be endless variations and possibilities of topping and seasoning. However, there are some health risks of the trend that one should be wary of before making any new boards.
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There is an excessive amount of butter used in a lot of the videos trending on TikTok. An extra-large helping of butter comes with a massive serving of saturated fat as well. An excess of butter in the regular diet could put you at higher risk for obesity, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, etc. Avoid making butter boards with too much butter or avoid making them regularly.
Another thing to be careful of is the cracks in your wooden board. If there are any gaps, smearing butter will push it into the crevices, which are dark and damp- the perfect environment for microbes to breed in. You could avoid the risk altogether by shifting to a ceramic plate or a board made of non-porous material.
Also, take care of the hygiene around your butter board. With multiple people sharing the same board, there are chances of communal contamination as every individual could be leaving their germs on board. Small bite-sized pieces of bread that don’t allow room for double or triple-dipping can be helpful.
