How to make a butter board, according to the chef who inspired the food trend
The grip that the butter board has on TikTok and Instagram's foodies is tight — and for good reason. A butter board is easy to build and is open to the chef's interpretation.
The butter board started trending earlier this month from a video posted by Brooklyn-based cook Justine Doiron posted on Instagram Sept. 15 claiming she wants to make butter boards the next charcuterie board.
But Doiron isn't the butter board's originator. She credits chef Joshua McFadden, who has been making butter boards for about a decade.
"(I) used to do them for farm dinners where you'd have a bunch of different breads and spreads on the table," he says, noting there'd be an array of purees and butters to serve. "It was an opportunity to present butter and add fun, seasonal ingredients to it that made the butter more than the sum of its parts."
And a butter board "should never taste the same," he says because there are so many ways to incorporate flavors and textures (I tried making an autumnal butter board this weekend with pumpkin spice, apple and maple flavored butters — talk about yum).
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McFadden published instructions for the butter board in his cookbook, "Six Seasons," co-authored with Martha Holmberg.
The book's publisher, Artisan Books, shared his advice on butter boarding.
'Herbed' Butter with Warm Bread
(From chef Joshua McFadden) It's impossible to write a precise recipe for this, so use this as a guide to set you up for success.
Bread and butter all by itself is one of the perfect things in life. Good butter – grass-fed, real butter, the yellow, almost cheeselike butter – is popping up at farmers' markets in small batches and is even showing up on supermarket shelves. Butter has gotten a bad rap, but finally the nutrition world is realizing that it's actually quite good for us. One of the healthiest, most brilliant people I know – Eliot Coleman of Four Season Farm in Maine – thinks it's the perfect food. He eats it almost like peanut butter, spread on the bread so thickly that he can see his teeth marks after he takes a bite.
Once you have found some good butter to celebrate, gather the herbs, edible flowers, shoots, baby greens . . . just mix it up. The end result will be stunning and will tell a story-every bite is unique.
HERE'S HOW YOU DO IT:
Smear the butter flat on a cutting board or plate, season generously with flaky salt, several cranks of black pepper, and a sprinkle of chile flakes.
Then just start layering on the greens and herbs, some grated citrus zest if you have it, toss on some chopped pickles or capers, and keep adding.
Place on the table with a nice warm country loaf to rip into and let the good times begin.
I've never put this on a table without it prompting a lot of conversation and happy faces.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How to make a butter board, according to the chef behind the trend
