beXnlog

Butterland

About 15 years ago i had some Amish butter straight from PA, a block of yellow-orange goodness wrapped in aluminum foil. It was so rich and dense, it reminded me more of cheese than butter - i wanted to eat this stuff straight, no bread necessary! Since then, i've been fondly remembering this wonderful butter although i haven't made a great effort to locate some. There's a booth at the Union Square Farmers' Market that sells Amish cheeses sometimes, but i don't recall if they had butter.

Kavita's comment about butter keepers has me on a frenzy to locate one to buy. I love totally ingenious, simple things like this. A "butter keeper," aka "butter bell" or "French butter dish," is a two-part contraption. You pack the "bell" part with softened butter, and turn it upsidedown into salted water to store it at room temperature (for good spreadable consistency) for up to a month. The water forms an airtight seal, which keeps oxygen from reaching the butter and spoiling it. This site has a diagram while this one has a picture of a packed bell and links of sites to buy them. Today i saw one at Bridge Kitchenware* but i wasn't into the heavy glazed pottery look. I'm leaning towards ordering a set of these mini ones (cause i love mini!) or maybe this red one.

It was such a nice day today that i walked from 52nd to 32nd, stopping at 42nd for the Grand Central Food Hall. I picked up a crusty baguette and was peering into the cheese case when it occurred to me to check out some fancy butter. The one i chose was the 8 oz. salted cultured butter from Vermont Cheese & Butter Co. Back at the office, i tasted-tested the butter with P and Hiroko of Lake Isle Press. We all agreed that the butter was absolutely delicious - it's much creamier and more flavorful than supermarket butter, and at $3.99 for 8 oz. vs $5.50 for 16 oz., the price difference is totally worth it. It reminds me of that Amish butter from way back.

Hmm, i've consumed about 4 T of butter today. This must be bad but it sure tasted great going down. New mission: get a cool butter keeper and fill it with this real butter for extreme butter goodness!

*I tested and bought a Unicorn pepper grinder! It really does grind like mad. I'm excited about trying other peppercorns besides the ones in my giant McCormick jug.

posted by beXn @ 2:42 AM