• TikTok goes back to basics with #buttertok
• Flavoured butter recipes: Butter but even better

Way back in the innocent mists of early 2020, we reported that boards were no longer just for cheese and artisanal meats – people were heaping boards with pancakes, salads, French fries and anything else they could find for artistic (and Instagrammable) tableaus. But, folks, it seems we've reached a new summit in our collective food-on-boards journey: All hail the butter board.

Butter boards – boards smeared with softened butter and topped with all manner of savoury and sweet accoutrements – started popping up on social media last week, after food influencer Justine Doiron posted on TikTok introducing the concept.

"I want to make them the next charcuterie board," she says in the video, which has been viewed 8 million times. "Not to usurp charcuterie, but maybe, a little bit."

Her version is topped with lemon zest, salt, edible flowers and a "honey coriander situation", resulting in an appealing, colourful spread through which she drags hunks of warm, crusty bread.

She notes that her inspiration came from chef and author Joshua McFadden, whose 2017 cookbook Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables included a recipe for flower- and herb-strewn butter, which he described as a dish to delight guests.

The French were dunking radishes into salty butter back when TikTok just described the sound clocks make.

"I've never put this on a table without it prompting a lot of conversation and happy faces," McFadden wrote.

Others soon followed Doiron's lead, posting images and videos of butter boards topped with figs, radish slices and ripe strawberries. Riffs included a board spread with whipped cream cheese and topped with berries and jam, with bagels for dipping, and goat's cheese with savoury crackers.

Of course, the concept of flavoured butter isn't new – compound butters have long been a staple for chefs and home cooks alike, used to top meats, fish and vegetables hot off a grill or to spread on a toasty slice of bread. And the French were dunking radishes into salty butter back when TikTok just described the sound clocks make.

But the butter board seems to have tapped into our collective love for food arrayed artfully on boards, as well as a pent-up desire to share and entertain.

McFadden, who doesn't use TikTok and professes himself to be inept at Instagram, said he first heard that his recipe – which he came up with when he did farm events as a chef and would forage for fresh toppings – had gone viral when Doiron messaged him about it. Now, he's enjoying seeing people experiment with it. "It's a fun recipe because anyone can do it; it's really accessible," he said.

And he thinks a lot of the draw is that it's food that's meant to be shared. "No one is making a butter board just for themselves – I mean, if they are, more power to them," he said. "But it's connecting people, and that's super cool, especially at a time when the world is so weird."

The concept had some skeptics on social media, many of whom worried about double-dippers and the idea of communal-style eating while COVID-19 remains a threat. And some seem intimidated by the prospect of cleaning their board (usually a bread or cutting board) afterwards.

"I love this," one commenter to Doiron's initial video wrote. "BUT . . . I'd rather throw this board away after than try to wash it." (A good scrub with soap and warm water should do it, easily, it seems?)

Washington Post