It is a truth most of us in food can get behind: butter makes just about everything better. And while cheese may traditionally get top billing on the specialty food board, high-quality butter deserves a spot right alongside it.
In the specialty food world, butter is increasingly treated with the same appreciation as cheese — as a crafted product capable of expressing flavor, seasonality, terroir and technique. And honestly? There are very few bad ways to eat it.
Build a Better Butter Board
When adding butter to a cheese board, start by looking for high-quality selections from a local specialty food or cheese shop. Just as you might offer cheeses that move from delicate to bold, consider doing the same with butter. Two or three varieties can offer plenty of range.
Butter can also be presented much like cheese: molded, spread, tucked into a crock or simply served in a generous mound on the board. The goal is to make it feel intentional — because good butter is more than something to smear on bread.
And then there are cultured, flavored and compound butters.
Cultured butter is made by introducing cultures to cream and allowing it to ferment before churning, creating a tangier, more complex flavor. In fact, cultured butter was essentially the original butter: before modern refrigeration, cream naturally fermented as it was collected, giving the finished butter its characteristic tang. Think of it as butter edging deliciously toward cheese territory.
Compound butter takes things even further. Mix butter with herbs, alliums, edible flowers, pickles, tinned fish or just about anything else that plays nicely with butter, and suddenly you have another opportunity for flavor, creativity and color on the board.
What Pairs Well With Butter?
Start with the classics. French breakfast radishes and watermelon radishes are natural partners, while jams, jellies and fruit conserves bring sweetness and contrast.
You can even deconstruct the classic French jambon-beurre: baguette, Bayonne ham, cornichons and, of course, plenty of butter.
Salt is another easy way to experiment. A sprinkle of smoked sea salt can transform butter’s flavor, while olives and pickles provide a welcome hit of acidity against its richness.
High Quality Butter Brands
For shoppers looking to explore, Isigny Sainte-Mère offers French, European-style butter with a distinctive Normandy character. Échiré, from southwest France, is known for traditionally churned butter made with locally collected cream and protected by the Charentes-Poitou PDO.
Closer to home, Vermont Creamery makes a widely available cultured butter with a distinctly American identity, offered plain or with sea salt. And Président brings more than 75 years of French dairy tradition to its rich, delicate butter.
So next time you’re building a cheese board, don’t stop at the cheese counter. Pick up some really good butter, too. After all, if it tastes good with butter, there’s a pretty good chance it belongs on the board.