Are you on (butter) board? Philly sounds off on TikTok’s latest food craze.

When Kerri Sitrin first saw a butter board on her TikTok feed, she was excited to try it out. Then she saw it again, and again, and again.

Featuring softened butter smeared across wooden boards and serving trays, butter boards are basically a deconstructed compound butter. They’re topped with flavor boosters — like roasted garlic, fresh herbs, flaky salt, or honey — and served with warm bread. This trend has inexplicably captured the app’s algorithm even though the concept has been floating around for years. Along the way, it has sparked both loyal stans and total outrage.

Popular food TikToker Justine Doiron, who goes by the handle @Justine_Snacks, said in her original TikTok that she hopes butter boards become the “next charcuterie board.” Her video about the boards has been viewed more than 8.4 million times.

Sitrin, South Philly Food Co-op’s marketing manager, knew the trend was something the community-owned grocery store could capitalize on. She filmed herself plating a spread of soft butter, honey, lemon zest, pomegranate seeds, pumpkin seeds, blackberries, arugula, and salt onto a butcher block. From there, she dipped crackers into the mix.

“We love the butter board trend because it feels so communal,” Sitrin said.

Others, like Philadelphia Chef Kurt Evans, are still on the fence. On Tuesday, Evans posted a screenshot on his Instagram stories for his 16,000 followers. He admitted he would consider eating a butter board if he was among the first to take a swipe. After that? Not so much.

But how did some butter on wood become the latest food trend with more than 116 million views on TikTok? Where did the trend originate? What’s the best way to serve it and what’s keeping the skeptics from jumping on (butter) board? Here’s what you need to know.

Butter boards have been around since at least 2017 when Chef Josh McFadden featured the concept in his James Beard Award-winning cookbook Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables.

In the book, McFadden dressed the board with herbs and edible flowers. On TikTok, Doiron credited McFadden for first coming up with the boards back in her mid-September video. A day later, she returned to her initial post to add, “I was not expecting this to blow up.”

Evans says part of butter boards’ appeal is their accessibility and ease.

“In times of COVID and inflation, this is a very practical dish to pull off in a smaller setting when entertaining,” he said.

Charcuterie boards had already been performing well on TikTok, with over a billion views on videos with the proper hashtag prior to the butter board’s entrance.

While its charcuterie board counterparts filled with tinned fish, fancy deli cuts, and bougie cheeses can rack up the grocery receipts, even on a pricier day, butter remains less expensive.

Still, the main ingredient’s sudden surge in popularity could pose a scarcity risk, prompting prices to rise. Butter production was down this summer according to the United States Department of Agriculture and interest is up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average price of a stick of butter this summer was up by about 29%.

Last year, another TikTok food trend caused a grocery-related market disruption. The “TikTok Pasta,” which combined a block of feta cheese, tomatoes and garlic in a roast pan to make an oven-baked pasta sauce, prompted a temporary widespread shortage of feta cheese across the country. The phenomenon was appropriately nicknamed “the feta effect.”

There are two main factors here that have cause butter board hesitation: food safety temperature questions and double-dipping concerns.

For the first part, butter is safe to leave out at room temperature according to the USDA. In fact, most European countries traditionally leave butter and eggs out on the counter.

Now, for Chef Evans’ main concern: germs.

“I would not want to eat off one of these at an event with like, 50 or more people,” he said. “And if it’s for a large crowd, there would need to be proper spread cutlery. Don’t have people dipping in with their bread.”

Evans said even if a person is dipping with their bread for the first bite, depending on how close their hands get to the spread could impact his comfort level.

“The double dip is always a problem. I’m always on the lookout for it,” he said. “When I go to events, if they have a shrimp cocktail or hummus plate out without the right serving utensils, I will pass over it.”

To fix this, he says he’d like to see a spreading knife served with the boards. He added that butter boards should be plated on smaller-sized serving boards which would cut down on potential food waste.

“I don’t believe they should be on a whole 24 x 24 wood block,” he said. “It needs to be something super small. It would be a hit in restaurants with bread.”

The Pennsylvania area is covered on butter. Would you expect anything less from a state that has an annual butter sculpture contest?

Local dairy farms that sell butter include Valley Milkhouse, Seven Stars Farm, and Dutch Meadows Farm.

» READ MORE: Dairy farms, creameries, and cheesemakers worth a drive near Philly

Peaceful Springs Farm out of Honeybrook even makes a goat milk butter that Philly FoodWorks sells locally. As for board toppers and mix-ins, Sitrin said local ingredients like honey, herbs, and fruit are all appropriate options.

» READ MORE: The best farmers markets down the Shore

There’s no one way or strict recipe when it comes to butter boards.

In McFadden’s original recipe, he emphasizes that the butter should already be room temperature and ideally, high quality and unsalted.

The board flavor profiles can lean sweet or savory.

Sitrin says the important part is to get creative — and to share.

“There are so many different types of ingredients folks can use,” she said. “It’s the perfect sharing dish to invite friends and neighbors over.”

Still, others argue that the best type of butter board might just be a loaf of bread — 86 the board. Also known as toast.