For well over a year now,
elaborate charcuterie boards have been taking over the social feeds of food
enthusiasts. There have been artful assemblages of the usual items, like
cheese, meat and fruit, as well as plates topped with desserts and colorful
candy.
اضافة اعلان
If by chance you’ve seen boards stacked with cookies shaped like
dog bones and homemade jerky strips, those aren’t for human consumption.
They’re called “barkuterie.”
Kristine Boyd, 51, first caught wind of the trend on Pinterest.
She lives with three dachshunds — Riley, Brody and Jasper — in Orlando,
Florida, and decided to make them a barkuterie board after a bit of positive
news from her veterinarian.
Brody, the oldest of the trio, had been declared cancer-free
after a biopsy. “I was so excited. So I decided, ‘You know what? I’m going to
the Woof Gang Bakery to get some treats,’” said Boyd, who works in retail
management. She splurged on specialty Snoopy and heart-shaped cookies, just
because.
What started as a plate of their favorite dog treats evolved
into an artistic project. “My guys love blueberries, so I thought, ‘OK, let’s
add some fruit in to give it a little bit of variety and color,’” she said.
Her dachshunds seemed pleased with the result. “They have
bottomless stomachs but did steer toward the fruits and veggies because they
don’t get those every day,” Boyd said. She plans on making boards again for
their birthdays.
Shelters across the country are recording high adoption numbers,
and people are spending more time than ever around their dogs. Last year
Americans spent a record $103 billion on their pets, according to the American
Pet Products Association. For many of those owners, dogs are more than just pets;
they’re part of the family. Barkuterie is one way to affirm that bond.
Lyndsay Shackelford, 28, made a Saint Patrick’s Day board for
her Beagle mix, Wilson. She whipped up “pup-sicles” with goat’s milk and kale,
sweet potato chews, and sliced vegetables.
Social media’s charcuterie-board trend has been widely
documented, but barkuterie has received less attention since photos of the
boards began popping up on Instagram in 2019. Their popularity seems to be growing
thanks to new companies selling dog-friendly snack boards, the proliferation of
how-to posts on pet blogs and people seeking creative outlets for stress.
In January, Heather Raeder, a 29-year-old hospital pharmacist in
Chicago, channeled her own creativity into an artfully arranged board of
homemade dog biscuits, peas and jerky for her two corgis, Ellie and Crouton.
Since then, she’s turned her hobby into a side hustle, selling arrangements for
around $20 to dog owners throughout Chicago.
Similarly, Amanda Yu-Nguyen, 35, welcomed the chance to pursue a
creative deviation from her day job. Her dining room table is now covered in
the trappings of barkuterie boards featuring locally made dog biscuits and
antelope jerky.
Yu-Nguyen, who works in student affairs at Emory University in
Atlanta, said that her 6-by-6 boxes, which start at $30, always include a
mélange of hard treats, fresh fruits and veggies (like blueberries), and dried
sweet potato. Sometimes she’ll use a fancy garnish like a cucumber rose.
She’s recently started making boards that reflect her
upbringing. “I’m Chinese, so going to dim sum was a big part of my childhood,”
Yu-Nguyen said. “Some of the items that I put in the doggy dim sum steamers are
trying to mimic what a human would eat at dim sum.” Treats that might appear in
the steamers include duck feet and tripe.
From a health standpoint, Aziza Glass, a 32-year-old
veterinarian, said the boards, made with dog-safe food (hold the cured meats
and sweets), could be “a great way for pet parents to become involved in the
nutrition in the meal preparation of their pets.”
She recommends using crudités like carrot and cucumber strips,
blueberries, bananas and strawberries, as well as a low-sodium turkey jerky.
Going this route, Glass said, rather than piling the boards with biscuits,
helps prevent gastrointestinal issues.
There’s a fine line between nurturing and spoiling one’s pets,
and portion control is key to that distinction. After snapping a picture of her
dachshunds with their platter, Boyd served them individual plates to keep them
from overeating.
“I don’t have kids of my own, so I definitely treat mine like
kids,” Raeder said of her corgis. And what do kids love more than snacks made
just for them?