The Irish would pack small barrels, or firkins, with butter, then bury them in peat bogs and leave them there for several years to make an aged butter speciality. I can only imagine that it would have tasted very cheesy and rich. This practice ended in the 1800s, but perhaps the closest thing we have to it is cultured butter. This is butter made from either raw, fermented cream or pasteurised cream that has had an enzyme added to re-start the fermentation process. Cultured butter has a slightly cheesy flavour that is wonderful with savoury foods, but a bit of an acquired taste for the North American palate. Look in your favourite gourmet shop or online for butters from Normandy or Brittany if you want to give it a try.
Butter in India
India is a country of millions of vegetarians, so dairy figures prominently in their cuisine. Here, butter is clarified, meaning it is warmed and allowed to separate. Milk solids fall to the bottom and the pure fat rises to the top. It's the pure fat that is kept and cooled, called ghee. Ghee can be used for frying at higher temperatures because the milk solids are gone, so it doesn't burn as easily. Lactose intolerant eaters can still enjoy ghee or, as we call it in this country, drawn butter (or clarified butter). It's the same thing, different name. Canadians are most likely to encounter clarified butter in a ramekin hovering over a tea light when we dig in to a whole lobster or crab.
Butter in Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, butter is warmed in a tall clay vessel. Spices and aromatics are added to the pot—onion, garlic, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fenugreek, turmeric—and allowed to gently infuse for several hours. It's called niter kibbeh, and many households and restaurants keep this pot over a low flame or pilot light all the time, ready at a moment's notice to whip up something fantastically flavourful. I'm fortunate enough to live near an Ethiopian grocer who sells ready-made tubs of kibbeh. It keeps in the fridge forever. I use it to sauté kale or rapini, and it's fantastic!
House-churned butter
Everything old is new again, isn't it? In many urban centres, the latest restaurant trend is house-churned butter. This might leave our great-grandmothers shaking their grey heads in disbelief—didn't they positively jump for joy when store-bought came about?—but it's all part of the local food movement taking place in the cities. And I have to say, homemade does taste better. At Cowbell Restaurant in Toronto, Chef Mark Cutrara churns his own, and I encourage everyone to taste the difference. It's creamy, fresh, sweet and outrageously good, melting over one of Mark's well-aged steaks or smeared thickly over warm baguette.
Page 2 of 3 - Read page three to find out why movie theatre butter is so bad.
