The Care and Handling of Butter

There's an excellent article in today's New York Times on butter. If you're doing any baking this week or next, you might want to take a look (free registration may or may not be required). It's a very basic guide and highly informative guide to the most common mistakes in the handling of butter.

GB,

Thanks for the link, which does have some helpful tips. That said, articles like these drive me a little nuts, in that they make a relatively simple, fun process seem completely inaccessible to the home cook. Professional cooks tend to have obsessive personalities, which in turn cause them to exaggerate the need for precision:

“Butter has that razor melting point,” said Shirley O. Corriher....

For mixing and creaming, butter should be about 65 degrees: cold to the touch but warm enough to spread. Just three degrees warmer, at 68 degrees, it begins to melt.

Now come on. How practical is it that the home cook is going to be able to determine the difference between 65 and 68 degrees? And besides, that tight spread is just ridiculous. You can cream butter just fine at 60 degrees, probably even 55 degrees. How about something more practical like - "leave the butter out of the fridge for about 20 minutes, then cream it."

What temperature does the NY Times say is best for finding the elephant's footprints in it?

Warm butter can be rechilled and refrozen, but once the butterfat gets warm, the emulsion breaks, never to return.

Well, heck. Better just throw it away at that point.

It's too bad you can't remove those milk solids from melted butter so it will keep in the fridge forever.

Kennyz wrote:GB,
How about something more practical like - "leave the butter out of the fridge for about 20 minutes, then cream it."

Here's something close:

The best way to get frozen or refrigerated butter ready for creaming is to cut it into chunks. (Never use a microwave: it will melt it, even though it will look solid.) When the butter is still cold, but takes the imprint of a finger when gently pressed, it is ready to be creamed.

Kennyz wrote:How practical is it that the home cook is going to be able to determine the difference between 65 and 68 degrees?

Set the thermostat for 65, and leave the butter out for an hour or so?

Llama wrote:It's too bad you can't remove those milk solids from melted butter so it will keep in the fridge forever.

You mean like Ghee? You don't even need the fridge.

“I can tell a margarine cookie as soon as I bite into it,” she said. “And then I put it right down.”

YEP!!! I have a friend whose MIL makes trays of Christmas cookies every year. It's a sweet thought, except they're all made with Crisco, and taste revolting.