I watched "America's Test Kitchen," and they compared butters. I'm a huge fan of butter.
In high school, one of my teachers attempted to teach how easily counterfeits can fool you. He used butter and margarine as his comparison. The only two sophomores in a class of seniors volunteered for the experiment. I was one of the sophomores. The seniors chose the one they thought was butter by appearance. Funnily enough, I and the other sophomore unerringly chose the butter not only by appearance but by taste. We ruined the teacher's visual aid by choosing correctly and annoyed the seniors. I probably enjoyed that a little too much.
Anyway, ATK compared expensive European brands to American brands. Land O'Lakes came in second behind a European brand. However, the European brand cost $10 a pound. Ouch. I like Land O'Lakes.
More importantly, they talked about the proper storage and usage. Butter should be kept in the freezer until right before using. Butter will pick up every oder in the fridge.
It actually shouldn't be kept out, but I confess I do, for easier spreading.
From the first time I heard Julie Childs' declaration, I've adhered to her philosophy: Everything is better with butter. I did have a brief stint experimenting with spreads like Country Crock. I always come back to butter. It's been decades since I've used anything but butter.
I have one more experiment I want to explore: Making cream into butter.
I've made a tentative step in that direction already. I made whipped cream and beat the cream too long for proper whipped cream but not long enough for proper butter. I want to attempt it again. Maybe this year will be the year.
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When we lived overseas, we used to make butter from the cream skimmed off the water buffalo milk after boiling it. I used a mixer and beat the cream until it turned into butter. I added yellow food coloring while it was beating; it didn't make a strong yellow color, but it did look better than just plain white! I added salt afterwards. It was decent enough butter, but it got to be a pain and when we were able to buy already made butter in the big city, I went that direction. Water buffalo butter isn't quite as nice as cow butter. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhy am I not surprised you'd know how to do this? LOL! Good to know. Thanks ((Margaret))
Delete:-D If you use a mixer, be prepared for the water/buttermilk coming our of the cream as it separates into butter -- it will splash all over the place!
DeleteWe also did this with the kids at our homework center, where you put cream in a container and shake it until the butter separates out. Less messy but hard on the arms!
New exercise crazy! :-D "What are you doing?" "Making butter." Actually, I think I could like that. ;-)
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