SIMON'S FOOD SCHOOL:
Stuff You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Food
Butter
This month’s recipe is one for Cultured Butter. That is, butter made from cream that has been “cultured” for 48 hours with buttermilk or yogurt before being churned. Although it has always been popular in Europe, it has become quite a trendy ingredient and is now appearing on menus all over the United States.
Butter, however, has been around almost since the days when man first began to domesticate animals, and kept sheep, cows, goats and even horses -- yes, I have eaten horse and yak butter in Mongolia -- to use their milk, as well as for their meat and hides.
Most historians believe that the word "butter" comes from the Ancient Greek "bou-tyron" or "cow cheese." And, as with so many of the foods that we almost now take for granted, the probability is that the first examples of butter were created by accident. In this case, the suggestion is that ancient herds men kept milk in pouches made of animal hide that was agitated as they rode, separating the milk solids from the buttermilk to create something similar to the butter we are familiar with today. Not wanting to waste anything, the butter was soon put to good use.
Although butter began to be produced in great quantity in many parts of the world, it was sometimes considered food fit only for the poor and the nomadic. In Rome, where heat made butter harder to store for long periods, and where they preferred to use olive oil for cooking, butter was treated primarily as a cosmetic aid. In ancient Greece, butter was seen as something only to be eaten by the barbarians. While in China, it was considered food that was only eaten by the nomadic hordes in areas such as Mongolia.
Butter was prized in other parts of the world. In India, they learned how to clarify their buffalo milk butter to make ghee, which made it easier to store in the Indian heat. It was used not only as food, but also to fuel lamps and to be offered to the gods in religious ceremonies.
In more northerly countries, where the more temperate climate allowed butter to be stored for longer, it became prized for its culinary uses. Kings of Norway demanded to be paid some of their due taxes in buckets of butter, and the Catholic church would demand payments from noble men so they could be exempt from the ban on using butter during the month of Lent.
Butter usage went into decline in the early part of the 20th Century. In part because the world wars had made its production more difficult, and in part because the creation of butter alternatives created to fill the gap, such as margarine, were promoted (inaccurately) to be more heart healthy.
Thankfully, butter is now back on the menu in a big way, and if you give this month’s recipe a try, you will see why.
