Unless you’ve been on a TikTok detox, you’ve likely seen what feels like hundreds of videos showing the app’s latest food craze: butter boards. A butter board is…well, exactly what it sounds like. It’s a communal appetizer that stars softened butter swooped on a cutting board, cheese platter or serving plate, zhuzhed up with dippers and garnishes. There are truly countless ways to make one, and it couldn’t be easier to pull off—even if assembling an Insta-worthy charcuterie board has been your Achilles heel. Read on for all the deets on butter boards, including how the trend went viral and tips for crafting your own.

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I like this one idk I’m in a silly goofy butter mood

It’s butter’s answer to the cheese board. Think softened butter, artfully smeared across a serving board of some kind. It’s typically served with sliced bread, crackers or crudités for dipping, and the butter is usually zhuzhed up with an assortment of pantry staples (like dry spices, ground seasonings or roasted garlic) or finished with gourmet-looking toppers (like flaky salt, honey or edible flowers). But don’t limit yourself to those examples: There’s no limit to how you can create or adorn one.

Butter boards went viral when Justine Doiron (@justine_snacks on TikTok and Instagram) shared her version, which is crowned with flaky salt, lemon zest, herbs, edible flowers and coriander honey. She credited Joshua McFadden—coauthor of the 2017 cookbook Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, which included a butter board recipe before butter boards were a thing—in her video for the idea.

“I want to make [butter boards] the next charcuterie board—not to usurp charcuterie, but like…maybe a little bit,” she says in her viral video, which has garnered 1.1 million likes and 8.4 million views so far. “It just feels really communal.”

Despite the rising prices of butter (thanks, inflation), butter boards are generally way less costly to create than charcuterie boards, which require pricy cheeses, meats and accompaniments. Not only are they cheaper, but they’re also easier to assemble, if you ask us. There’s no need to fuss over salami roses or creatively cut dairy—with a few naturally gorgeous toppings, butter boards basically assemble themselves.

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Taryn Pire is PureWow’s associate food editor. A former bartender and barista, she’s been writing about all things delicious since 2016, developing recipes, reviewing restaurants and investigating food trends at Food52, New Jersey Family Magazine and Taste Talks. When she isn’t testing TikTok’s latest viral recipe, she’s having popcorn for dinner and posting about it on Instagram @cookingwithpire.