{"id":2711,"date":"2011-04-13T23:23:30","date_gmt":"2011-04-14T05:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/?p=2711"},"modified":"2019-04-29T23:00:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T03:00:22","slug":"storyboard-butter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/storyboard-butter\/","title":{"rendered":"Storyboard: Butter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Butter<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

What is butter?<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Butter is made by churning milk or cream. This act creates a water based emulsion in which fat is suspended. If you\u2019re interested in learning more than you ever wanted to know about milk products, read Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages<\/a> by Anne Mendelson. The book delves deeply into the science and history of milk and everything that comes from it. Anne Mendelson describes in detail what makes butter special, and the chemical reasons behind its inimitable flavor. I was fascinated to contemplate the fact that milk fat is the first taste experience of all mammals, and every species of mammal produces milk with a specific \u201clipid profile\u201d. Ms. Mendelson describes it as a genetic cue by which mammals \u201crecognize the milk of their own kind.\u201d Basically, butter is our first means of getting nutrition. Compared to other fats, butter has a completely unique chemical makeup and so it behaves differently during cooking. Frying in butter is a delicate maneuver- the milk solids burn at a much lower temperature than oils. However, at lower temperatures butter caramelizes food and the resulting flavor is unlike any other fat.<\/p>\n

How can I write about butter without mentioning Julia Child? Famously quoted saying, \u201cIf you\u2019re afraid of butter, just use cream,\u201d Julia will always be remembered as someone who enjoyed food with abandon. As our country turned to margarine and scorned fat, Julia refused to compromise. In Baking with Julia<\/a>, Dorie Greenspan writes, \u201cNothing tastes like butter, nothing bakes like butter.\u00a0 Use \u2018the other spread\u2019, and all the work you put into a recipe will be for naught- it just won\u2019t have the taste, texture, or look you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

What can I take from all this? Butter is a special thing, and I appreciate it all the more.<\/p>\n

Buying Butter<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Salted or unsalted? In baking, it is assumed that all butter is unsalted so the cook can control the salt in the recipe. Any recipe requiring the butter to be exposed to high heat for a prolonged period (such as clarified butter) should be made with unsalted butter. Otherwise it\u2019s simply a preference of taste. I love the flavor of Irish Kerrygold butter, and choose the salted version because I think it is better. Maybe it\u2019s the preservative quality that makes for a better butter after traveling all the way from Ireland, who knows? Chose whichever variety you think tastes best. European-style butter is usually higher in butterfat than American butter, which makes it taste nice and comes in handy when making pastry. According to Ms. Mendelson, USDA butter grades (AA, A, B) are not at all helpful in determining quality.<\/p>\n

Storing Butter<\/h4>\n

<\/br>Butter takes on aromas very easily, and so should be wrapped airtight during storage. It can be kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks or the freezer for a couple of months. I always have some butter in my Emile Henry butter pot<\/a> on the kitchen table. We eat a lot of bread and butter at my house, and it\u2019s nice to have soft, spreadable butter ever at the ready.<\/p>\n

This week I\u2019ve taken a moment to recognize the role butter plays in the spring pantry. It\u2019s easy to take something I use so often for granted. In these economic times I think more and more about how precious food is. I savor the taste of butter in all its many uses: pie crusts, cookies, cakes, icing, sauces, savory saut\u00e9es, biscuits and compound butters. Most of all, I love the simplest buttered slice of bread.
\n<\/br><\/p>\n

What do you love most about butter?<\/h5>\n

Leave Your Comments Here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is butter?   Butter is made by churning milk or cream. This act creates a water based emulsion in which fat is suspended. If you\u2019re interested in learning more than you ever wanted to know about milk products, read Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Anne Mendelson. The book delves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[154,91,94],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19460,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions\/19460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}