butter rant & a few fav butter facts

They say it’s the little things that count. This couldn’t be exemplified any greater when it comes toooo…BUTTER.  When I go to a restaurant and am served a packet of “buttery spread” with my bread, I’m immediately disappointed. 1) it’s insulting. Do you think I’m just too lazy to deal with spreading  ‘hard’ butter so you serve me this abomination; 2) do you just not think at all… which makes me a bit apprehensive about the rest of the meal I’m going to be served. Already starting one point under. Slap me a packet of the real stuff, or even better… some prime-label stuff, I am PUMPED for my dinner. You know your biz & are not effing around. 

Buttery spread features 1989032846 ingredients, mostly manipulated oil & added chemicals. It has no flavor. Only a weird chemical oil taste. Spreadable? Yes. Palatable? No. If I have to have it, I usually sprinkle salt on top of the bread to kind of get some semblance faux-butter flavor. Butter has 2 ingredients: cream, salt. And the more fatty fat cream, the yummier. I was lucky enough to dine in France on a work trip… and even though we were having a near 20-course 5-hour tasting menu, I still couldn’t help but have a little nibble of bread & butter in between plates. It was AMAZING... what kind of waxy smut had I been served my whole life before this?! (Butter? I barely even know her!) What makes the Euro-butter flavor so much better is the fat content (read: mmm).  That, and I’m sure the cows are a bit more fashionable than ours hehe. US butter has to have (minimum) 80% milk fat to be labeled “Butter” (NOT “buttery spread”, “butterish product”, etc).  In Europe, it’s typically about 82-84% milk fat to keep the title (basically more water is expunged during the development process, leaving a purer product)… this is not a HUGE percentage difference, but that little bit goes a long way in terms of flavor and how it cooks. (If you are having a hard time sleeping, reading reco: check out the regulations on import/export of countries’ butters and labeling regulations, it’s pretty intense. Don’t mess with the stuff.)

Higher milk fat content =

• higher smoke point.  Useful in sautéing dishes without prematurely browning the butter, or, just cooking dishes at a higher temperature.
• baking. Yields a flakier crust – the fat separates layers as it cooks and melts down, rather than the water sticking them together.

What is clarified butter?

I was looking at a recipe that called for clarified butter. I had no idea what this was (do I just melt it down until I can see through it? Why don’t they just say that?).  As you would have it… clarified butter is what in the hood we would say goes “hard in the paint”.  You start with your regular stick(s) of butter. You melt it down. You put it in the fridge… and wait. After an hour ++, you pop it out, and pull off the solid top.  What remains is clarified butter liquid in the cup. What you have gotten rid of is part water, salt, and some milk solids that burn a bit quicker. What you’re left with is pure butterfat.  Clarified butter (like European butter) is used for the higher smoke point in cooking, and at times even for deep frying. Expect to lose between 25-50% of your butter original amount in the final product. I imagine this process is very similar to the methods hippies use in making pot-brownies, but (unfortunately) this is a baked good that has not yet hit my kitchen.

Why do I have to use hard butter in some recipes and soft butter in others?

If you’re making a crust or any flakey pastry, cold butter is called for as the hard pieces of butter melt during baking, leaving small air pockets.  Softened butter will be consistently dispersed, leaving no room for these “pockets”. Softened butter is called for in cookie & cake recipes since that consistency is wanted, leaving ooey gooey texture throughout. If you’re like me and don’t plan ahead well (or want to make spur-of-the-moment cookies), and are cheat-softening your butter in the microwave, DON’T overdo it. Melted butter will NOT cook the same as softened… its physical properties change and it does not coat the flour the same way. Save it for a sauté dish.

And that’s all I have to say about that. Such a simplex product that can really make or ruin a dish depending how you balance it. I’m just doing what I can do help the obesity epidemic our country is facing... appreciate that pure fat people.