Butter
Saturated Satisfaction
Like many folks, I've cut down on my intake of saturated fat. I eat more fish and chicken than I once did. I carefully trim the fat from steaks and chops. I cook primarily with olive oil (although, as a good Southerner, I do keep a container of bacon grease in the fridge for those occasions when it's necessary), and I don't eat much butter. Apparently my efforts are successful as my overall cholesterol levels are good as is the balance between HDLs and LDLs. So it seems like a perfect time to go crazy.
About a month ago I stopped into a local market and noticed some fist-sized yellowish blobs wrapped in plastic in the cooler. Non-commercial butter! It was made by an Amish group near Atlanta and it was delicious. But was it really better than Land 'O Lakes? Or the Plugra I sometimes bought?
A new lifestyle magazine is starting up here in town and it occurred to me they might be interested in an article on local butter options. I called the editor, made my proposal, and he went for it.
So I headed for the store and bought butter. Not the usual butters found in every supermarket, but the exotic ones. I came home with an Irish butter, a French goat-milk butter, another Amish butter (but from Ohio), Plugra, more of the Atlanta butter, and Land 'O Lakes to use as a base point in my tasting.
In addition to tasting the butters alone, I decided to compare them on toast. So my next step was to bake a good toasting bread. For that I turned to a recipe in Beard on Bread, which has an excellent white sandwich loaf that also makes great toast. Then it was time to taste. So I made a cup of tea (it just seemed like the right thing to drink) and sat down to eat a whole lot of buttered toast.
They were all good and all somewhat different from Land 'O Lakes -- which is quite good, by the way. The most interesting was the French goat butter (in the photo it's the white butter on a plate with the butter knife). It did taste like butter but had a very mild flavor. So mild that I think it would simply disappear against any flavors stronger than bread. Not something to cook with.
The Ohio Amish butter (on the dark plate next to the blob of Atlanta butter) had a distinctly grassy flavor and an odd aftertaste. It was good, but had the most unusual flavor of the group. My favorite, though, was the Irish butter. It had a clear flavor of cream, a slight tang that's typical of cultured butters (I don't know whether it's cultured or not), and a surprising sweetness.
The tasting was huge fun and writing the article should be as well, And now I have a year's supply of butter in my freezer.
Like many folks, I've cut down on my intake of saturated fat. I eat more fish and chicken than I once did. I carefully trim the fat from steaks and chops. I cook primarily with olive oil (although, as a good Southerner, I do keep a container of bacon grease in the fridge for those occasions when it's necessary), and I don't eat much butter. Apparently my efforts are successful as my overall cholesterol levels are good as is the balance between HDLs and LDLs. So it seems like a perfect time to go crazy.
About a month ago I stopped into a local market and noticed some fist-sized yellowish blobs wrapped in plastic in the cooler. Non-commercial butter! It was made by an Amish group near Atlanta and it was delicious. But was it really better than Land 'O Lakes? Or the Plugra I sometimes bought?
A new lifestyle magazine is starting up here in town and it occurred to me they might be interested in an article on local butter options. I called the editor, made my proposal, and he went for it.
So I headed for the store and bought butter. Not the usual butters found in every supermarket, but the exotic ones. I came home with an Irish butter, a French goat-milk butter, another Amish butter (but from Ohio), Plugra, more of the Atlanta butter, and Land 'O Lakes to use as a base point in my tasting.
In addition to tasting the butters alone, I decided to compare them on toast. So my next step was to bake a good toasting bread. For that I turned to a recipe in Beard on Bread, which has an excellent white sandwich loaf that also makes great toast. Then it was time to taste. So I made a cup of tea (it just seemed like the right thing to drink) and sat down to eat a whole lot of buttered toast.
They were all good and all somewhat different from Land 'O Lakes -- which is quite good, by the way. The most interesting was the French goat butter (in the photo it's the white butter on a plate with the butter knife). It did taste like butter but had a very mild flavor. So mild that I think it would simply disappear against any flavors stronger than bread. Not something to cook with.
The Ohio Amish butter (on the dark plate next to the blob of Atlanta butter) had a distinctly grassy flavor and an odd aftertaste. It was good, but had the most unusual flavor of the group. My favorite, though, was the Irish butter. It had a clear flavor of cream, a slight tang that's typical of cultured butters (I don't know whether it's cultured or not), and a surprising sweetness.
The tasting was huge fun and writing the article should be as well, And now I have a year's supply of butter in my freezer.
2 Comments:
Amish butter? How cool!
Has your butter article since been published?
Nice tasting notes too.
Augustus,
Finding the Amish butter was very cool. Just big yellow blobs of goodness.
The article will be published this fall. In the meantime I'm trying to come up with a piece for the holidays that isn't one of the typical holiday food cliches.
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