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

Product Information

Ancient Sumerians offered up gifts of butter at temple in honor of the "powerful fertility goddess Inanna, protector of the seasons and harvest," she writes. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to read and review a cookbook that recommended using a high fat butter. While that book went into a little bit of detail on what constituted high fat butter, I realized I still had a lot of questions after a discussion on my review about how to find high fat butter. So when I requested this book, I hoped to learn more about how to choose a good butter for baking and got a whole lot more.

I wasn't sure what to think when I started this novel. The premise disturbed and fascinated me, but I had put off reading it for a few months since it had arrived in our library. I should have read it the minute it entered our doors. I finished it in a day and it is occupying a dark corner of my brain, and may do so for some time.In fact, while he was shooting ITV’s Islands to Highlands, he almost bought an islandin Shetland - presumably the 64-acre Linga, one of the Scalloway Islands, which was up for sale recently. Let’s get on with things. This is the story of a boy called Butter. (I’ll let him tell you how he got that moniker.) . . . . You've got the ultimate larder”, he says. “Whether it's fruit, potatoes or seafood. I'm very jealous”.

A guy claiming to eat himself to death on the internet? That's a pretty unique idea although at first I felt that it wasn't pulled off very realistically..but then again, teenagers are pretty dumb these days so maybe all the sudden popularity that Butter suddenly received from his classmates is understandable. 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. If you think you’re going to make butter out of that 1/4 cup of heavy cream leftover from making Never-Fail Biscuits, think again. It’s difficult to make butter from anything less than about 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces, 340g) of cream; most full-size mixers and food processors simply don’t like dealing with small amounts of liquid. And with the yield of butter from cream ranging from about 35% to 50% (tops) by weight, it’s frankly not worth the effort (even if you do manage it) to start with a cup or less of cream and end up with just 6 or 7 tablespoons of homemade butter. Final product: The purest of any of the homemade butters, almost completely devoid of remaining buttermilk. I know what you’re thinking: “eating yourself to death in one sitting isn’t possible.” Normally you’d be correct, but with a combination of a deadly overdose of insulin at his disposal as well as food allergies that could potentially kill him, Butter is not kidding around. The only thing he’s not sure of is . . . .

Comments

I read the description of this book when it first came out, and I almost bought it. It sounded so morbid, but like an incredibly interesting platform for discussing bullying and obesity. For whatever reason, I didn't buy the book--and now I am so glad I didn't. This book was the definition of underwhelming. Everything from the writing to the characters to the plot progression were just...not good. Absolutely disappointing. It’s clear that James’ passion for butter is unwavering, from its simplest form to the incredible dishes which can be created using it. He tells us that another favourite recipe of his which uses butter at the heart of the dish is The Apple – a dessert which is made with butter and ice cream and looks just like an apple. It’s dish that has become one of the most popular dessert dishes at his restaurant, The Kitchen. Whilst many have wondered why James hasn’t brought this book out sooner, some may question why he would write a book about butter in the first place. ‘I’ve never done trends, and because everyone else follows everyone else, sometimes it’s right to question whether to follow, or to make your own path. Sometimes you have to say “I believe in this, this is what I want to do”, and so I’m not really into trends – they come and go, whereas good food is here to stay.’ It's everything in balance and moderation”, says Martin. “We have this obsession in the UK, this up and down with weight, while the rest of Europe and the whole world eats butter. They consume more of it than us and they don’t have the issues that we do. At the end of the day, it's a natural ingredient, not manufactured”.