Butter: Comforting, Delicious, Versatile - Over 130 Recipes Celebrating Butter

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Perhaps most surprising is the story of butter's sacred and supernatural past. For many ancient civilizations, the unexplained mystery behind milk's transformation into butter made it seem magical. It "seemed like a marvelous event," Khosrova says. Once the book reaches the present day and the author's attempt to explore the world through the flavors of its butter it definitely loses me. For those of us who don't, or can't, globe-trot, "seek out a verifiable grass-fed butter (and be prepared to pay a little extra for it!)." See, there are grocery trips when I can’t afford plain ol' Land o' Lakes, much less some artisan small batch butter from Sweden. And I have to say, the idea of a "sheepy" or "goaty" butter is not compelling. I am also not made sorry that such travel is out of my reach when the author talks about one artisan using "a salvaged container that had once held some kind of industrial product" to hold milk. There is no amount of sanitization which would make me comfortable using that container to hold consumables. None. Aside from fuelling poor food choices and compromised health, such regulatory decisions may have fostered a growing erosion of public trust in the institutions established to protect citizens from exactly this sort of thing. Butter's a fat kid. That's something no one would argue with and something he himself identifies with. But he's so alone, and he's sad about being alone. He hates knowing what it is that keeps him alone is that number. Over the last few months, he's made good friends with Anna online -- Anna goes to his school, fits in with the in crowd, and has absolutely no idea the boy she talks to online (who goes by the name JP) is really Butter.

This is the opening paragraph. If that isn't enough to catch someone's attention, then I don't know what else would. It contains up to 30 ingredients, half of which you won't even know what they are. Even doctors are saying that their advice in the Seventies to eat margarine was wrong. I don’t want to eat something when I don’t know what it is”, says Martin. “However, I will never lecture others and say, eat this, try this and do that. I've never been one of those people that stands with a placard and shouts and screams. People have a choice”. Shortbread, pic: John Carey Salt (and season) to taste: Do you like your butter salted, or not? I prefer baking with unsalted butter (to best control the salt level in the recipe) and using salted butter as a condiment: on toast, biscuits, scones, pancakes, and slices of crusty bread, to name just a few favorites. When you make your own butter, you can add just the amount of salt you prefer. (To replicate the salt level of store-bought butter, use a scant 1/4 teaspoon table salt per 4 ounces (113g) of homemade butter.) That’s probably just as well, or the reception might not have been too great on our phone call about his new book, Butter, which is out now.After traveling across three continents to stalk the modern story of butter, award-winning food writer and former pastry chef Elaine Khosrova serves up a story as rich, textured, and culturally relevant as butter itself. The story of butter, Khosrova says, is a historical roadmap of humanity. "I felt like I had uncovered an epic story that very few people had been paying attention to," she tells NPR.

I hated thinking about death – not because I was afraid of it, but because, for some reason, every time I did, I felt this strange wave of sadness that death was actually so far off. Sometimes I wished it would just hurry up and get here.”

If you were thinking that a book about a kid eating himself to death and live-streaming it would be stupid, you were right; good catch. Probably one you can judge by the description. I was especially interested in reading about the cultural history of butter in terms of its economics and gender roles. Apparently for centuries butter was a divisive topic across much of Europe: Greeks and Italians used olive oil where others used butter and when they wanted to insult someone they called them a "butter-eater" (a barbarian). Khosrova explores the importance of butter and other dairy products for women (the iconic dairymaids) as a way to have a measure of respect and financial independence. I truly feel bad for Butter because no one should ever be treated as horribly as he had been….. but the catfishing is just not it. As northern Europe ate butter but Italy ate olive oil and goats' cheese, it seemed unfair to some that butter - a vital source of nutrients and energy - should be included in a list of foods to abstain from during Catholic fasting. The Pope faced rebellion over this issue. As well as a symbol of dispute it was connected with women's work and with prosperity - "as fat as butter" we say in Ireland.