You Had Me at Butter: Is Expensive Butter Worth It?

Hey, Sylvia.

Guess what?

What?

I bought butter

That's not usually how I start my conversations, but do tell

Well, today it is because basic homemade is what I bought.

, I also have Land O'Lakes extra creamy, Amish butter of course, the

two kinds, the regular and then the extra rich and fat, which is 85%.

And then I've got a couple of compound butters which I made and I'm testing myself.

And you, I think, have your fancy French cultured butter,

Of course I do.

So with all that you've named, guess how many that you actually have in your refrigerator?

Oh God, it's starting to look like, uh, cast iron right now.

So you're hoarding that like you did with the mason jars and cast iron?

I think so.

But the compound butter is really the interesting part because the best one is the strawberry,

Oh, didn't you also make, garlic and basil too?

I did.

I made garlic and basil and a little rosemary, and then one that's got a

little too much salt in it, so I'll just mix that with something else

But you did send me a picture of those strawberries, and from the picture, it could've

been lighting, but it kind of looked a little reddish black to me.

Well, no, it wasn't the lighting.

They were a little reddish black.

But the difference is they were roasted and they had balsamic on it, so that's the reason why

That is so cool.

So how was it when you put it on pancakes?

Surprisingly delicious actually, and Bob said that he wants more of it, so I

think it's a winner.

as long as he makes the pancakes, right?

As long as he makes the pancakes, I don't care what goes on those darn things.

so this is really an episode about butter molds, and we're starting with a tasting

And something slightly embarrassing along the way.

Yes, a few mistakes.

No, it's, you know, you just learn from your mistakes.

It's beautiful imperfections . because before we ask why anyone stamped butter, we should ask the more

can we even tell one butter from another, or does a good story just make it taste better?

Well, honestly, I think it's a little bit of both.

You know, the other day Bob and I were chatting, and I said, "I would drink swill wine if the environment was good."

Or some of your sister's pressed wine from her mason jars

Oh, right, the corks.

Well, maybe not that, but a story always makes something taste just a little bit better in my book

And the beach too.

Correct.

So thank you for being here.

We're glad that you're listening and hopefully tasting butter in your refrigerator.

This is Family Tree Food Stories.

I'm Nancy May

And I'm Sylvia France.

Every episode, there is a place of real history and a question we're still trying to answer.

History and mystery.

Today, that's butter

And it's all about how it was made, how it was sold, and occasionally blamed on a witch.

And I have a new use for it, which I'll tell you at the end

I can't wait to hear it.

So follow the show, leave a review, find us on Facebook at Family Tree Food and Stories

And don't forget, go to our website, which is Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com.

And hello to Lisa Olsen in Newton, Massachusetts, and Joanne Hope

Cycles, I think, I'm gonna say that correctly, Couch in Lexington, Kentucky.

Joanne, if I'm saying that wrong or pronouncing your name wrong, I'm sorry.

I had butter in my mouth.

And thank you everybody for being part of this side of the table with us

Which calls for a toast before we start tasting for real

And what are we toasting with today, Sylvia?

Of course, hot buttered rum

Everything is better with butter, although I'm really not a fan of hot buttered rum.

Ugh.

Still.

It was your idea.

You'll have

to deal with it.

We gotta try something different

Okay, to butter, and maybe next time bacon

Oh, bacon.

I'll drink to bacon any day.

So let's start simple.

Mine is sort of an American style, , the first one that I made, and yours is fancy, . French style, fermented cream first butter

I did.

Cultured butter gets extra time to ferment, which brings

a tangier, nuttier flavor not automatically better, just different

Well, I tried that too, and mine has that flavor as well, but just a little different.

So my other one is clean, straightforward, all-American, no dramatic entrance of course, unless

you're waving a flag . but it does do the job on hot toast and pancakes

And that sounds like a better you would make

Of course.

Thank you

Well, that wasn't exactly a compliment, but you could take it that way

I am going to receive it that way, snark or not.

So what did you actually taste?

Well, . So mine has sort of a a sweet, smooth taste with

a little bit of salt ' and yours has a little bit more tang to it

That's what people mean by cultured butter.

The fermentation adds a layer, sometimes almost cheesy.

You know, fermentation, sourdough bread has a little bit depth of flavor

Just like homemade yogurt, which I make now too.

It's your fault.

I know.

I'm, I'm bad influence

now we need the no-name store butter, , and we're really just bragging over our two bowls of cream

That's very important scientific control if you ask me

Yeah, so the store butter, first of all, it's not necessarily

as pretty as the ones that we've made, and it has flat taste.

Really almost, like, no taste at all

Well, once you've had the good stuff, it- it's not

surprising

That's it.

or we're saying that because we already know which bowl is supposed to be ordinary

I think so, but branding's already on my spoon or on my knife even before we ate it, 'cause I saw it

I think expectation is powerful, don't you?

Yes, I do, um, unfortunately sometimes.

But that brings us to the wooden thing, I'll call it

The butter mold, which is really what this whole episode is all about

, Nancy May: We look at an old one and think it's decoration, if you haven't seen those little stamps.

A flower, a heart, or something that just sat next to a butter dish just to make it look, I guess, pretty

But if you were making butter to sell or trade, the mark could actually tell people whose butter it was

Yes, way back in the early days, I'll say 1700, 1800s or even earlier than that, before wrappers and

labels, A recognizable mark actually made a difference, and it mattered

I still don't love calling it the first logo

Oh, I don't know.

I'm I think it should be called that, but why not?

an 18th-century farm woman sound like she had a marketing department

and so who cares?

I think that's pretty smart.

But maybe she just had a very demanding customer is my theory

That I do believe.

The Met has a Pennsylvania butter mold from around 1790 tied to

identifying the source and controlling the quality of the market butter

So the pretty shape didn't necessarily mean the butter was bad or good.

, It just made the maker's reputation travel a little further, I'd say

Right,, and the design had to be carved backwards so it printed correctly

All right, so I guess this is when it helps if you've got dyslexia which is exactly where

I'd fail because my beautifully carved stamp would probably say ret

you know, maybe like the mason jars, it could be worth more because of the mistakes

Yeah.

Fat chance, but very exclusive for sure.

Only one would exist because I'm not sure I could do it again

There's a real human point buried in this too.

Women were making the butter, and often controlling the money it brought into the house

.. Nancy May: So a whole small business was actually happening in somebody's kitchen, and even if nobody called it that,

Yes, I have a story,

Ooh.

Tell me, tell me.

My great-grandmother made butter from her own cow's milk, deep gold, I understand almost orange,

the kind the market owner used to hide under the counter for himself.

She actually used the butter to extend her ration cards."

Ooh, that's pretty sneaky or pretty smart.

Actually, I know somebody else whose- mom did something similar, Tanya Updigraff.

You know her,

Yes, I do,

brand loyalty or do you think that's just grocer greed?

I think probably both.

It's often the same customer

So how about the symbols now, though?

We're supposed to decode every single flower because it represented somebody else

No, that's where these stories get too confident.

Take the pineapple.

We've talked about this before.

, Originally it was just a rare, expensive way to show off wealth

, Nancy May: I know, and not the welcome story that everybody talks about

Not at first.

The hospitality meeting came later, mostly pushed by you-know-who

advertising,

So sometimes pineapple just means, "Look what I can afford.

I'm so rich

Context also matters more than any one symbol by itself

Good.

I'd hate to find somebody's pretty butter secretly hex signing me or giving me the evil eye one way or another.

I don't know.

Does butter give you an evil eye?

I think it could.

You would have to go that way.

You love your witch stories.

I know.

I can't die.

We've got one.

All right, so we've done the homemade plain old butter, the cultured butter, the store-bought butter.

Now I want to blind taste the Land O'Lakes creamy against the Amish butter.

What do you say?

Sounds good.

Are you gonna start on bread?

Well, I think we should start on sourdough.

But the Amish butter goes on the bread, of course, , and I don't want

to bury that texture in a compound butter for any means whatsoever

Well, I understand Land O'Lakes is the accessible premium option, not $150 truffle butter.

Something a listener could actually find

I think I paid about, mm, $10 for that one.

But we'll mention you have to pronounce this one

Leboeuf Brodier Black Perigord Truffle Butter.

Yeah, forget the French.

I'll just do the American language.

But just to show how far luxury branding can go, - we're not pretending we tasted it.

I'm not paying $150 or $160 for a pound of butter.

I don't even think it was a full pound

That's absurd, but thank you anyway

You're welcome.

We are testing what we actually have or what you can actually get as well.

So after the break, we guess which butter is which, and then we deal with the yes, yeah, ha, ha, ha, ha, the Butter Witch

. SYLVIA FRANCE: Before the break, we were pretending to be serious butter judges

Well, I wasn't pretending, but Bowles Bread options.

Now we actually have to guess

I already know which one I prefer

Of course you do.

That's not the same of knowing , which one is which though

But actually, as I'm trying to talk, I have it in my mouth.

Don't talk with your mouth full, please.

I know you used to tell your kids all that time, so I can tell you

Uh, thanks, Mom.

So fine, my guess is the cultured butter

Okay, and mine is the… Well, this one's gonna be easy 'cause it's the compound butter

Which kind?

Well, the strawberry one, of course.

And the answer of which is better, what do you think?

I do think it really depends on what you're eating.

So if it's bread or if it's on asparagus, it really depends on what you're having, which is best

And I don't think I'd put the compound strawberry on asparagus by any means.

Yeah.

So which one of us was right or wrong?

Well, I think we were both right

Well, that was diplomatic.

Of course

But I think we were tasting very thoughtfully, right?

Are you saying I've been branded

Yes, I'm saying you've been branded.

Not like a cow, but

maybe

goodness.

So we are tasting the story, however, that we preferred, not necessarily the brand.

So I'm also saying the price, and expectation do a lot of work here.

You know, if you look at what's in the grocery store shelf, I always have the

expectation that that rolled butter in, in the paper is gonna taste better.

So I don't know if that works or not, but we can taste the real difference in fermented and fresh for sure,

and we just don't automatically taste the price tag there because, yeah, it's the price of the cream.

I don't think the price of butter is the same thing

No, it's not.

. … the specialty butter might still be worth it to someone, though fresher, more complex, a process they actually value

And we've got another one, the Animal Farm Creamery, a good example.

Again, expensive.

I think they were up around $140 for a pound or so.. , they have Jersey cows in Vermont.

I guess you call them Jersey cows in Vermont, darling.

And they use long fermentation, , and they have a public sale that

clears out all their product in probably three minutes or so.

That's not just flavor.

That's the place, the process, and the scarcity.

Because the rest of it goes to all the Michelin star chefs

Sounds like supply and demand to me.

So how much value is actually in the butter, and how much is the story around it?

Which is exactly what the old butter mold was telling you, not just a smaller scale

Fine, I get your branding point, Miss Advertising

Yes, thank you.

I'm putting a mold on that point,

and not green

mold.

Need I say more?

Enough said on molds

Now, the butter witch.

If the butter wouldn't come, some people believed somebody had stolen the butter fat or the luck

Today we check the temperature, which is important, and they check the neighbors

or put a hot iron in the churn to burn the witch remotely

Ooh, I don't think I can do that in an HOA, might consider

it.

Probably not.

But that's a rather aggressive troubleshooting method, I'd say

There's even a yellow trembling fungus called witch's butter.

The woods supply their own evidence

So a failed batch actually gets a villain, a weapon, and yes, some special effects

Oh, those branding people again.

Oh, God.

they keep coming back , I'm gonna smack them.

But I have got this big, giant clay butter churn myself with a number six on it

Have you actually hand-churned butter?

Let me

N- no.

You should have made Bob do it

Yeah.

You know, I was playing with the, the pole the other day thinking, I don't know how anybody ever sat on a porch and did this.

It would've taken forever to do so.

But I bought it at an antique shop that was having a moving sale, and I know I actually had to have it.

I always wanted one of these

Let's just say the witch got to your butter first

Well, I think I'm gonna use that story as an excuse for Bob.

And no, he's not sitting me out there on the front porch with a glass of wine and a butter churn.

No, that's what you make him do

Yes.

in the rocking chair

And, and Bebe, the dogs.

So what should people actually try this weekend?

I'm gonna say they should start with one compound butter.

Soften the butter, the one that you buy at the store, the one that you like.

Add a little garlic, basil, maybe rosemary and salt in another.

Honey if they want as well, , and perhaps some roasted fruit

Let it sit a while, even overnight, so the flavor actually gets into the butter

. Nancy May: Put them in separate ramekins please, or separate bowls.

Then in the next morning, put it on some bread, pancakes, as you said earlier, some vegetables.

Al- I think I would keep the strawberry off the vegetables and then maybe make more than at least one flavor.

I'd say three or four just to test it

And if you want the mold idea, press it into a cookie cutter, an

ice mold, or an actual wooden butter mold, something that means something to you

Actually, I have these little tiny antique cookie cutters that I use, that I roll them out, and I've

tested doing that, so the next time we have a party, guess what I've got?

I've got molded butter.

You just wanna show off.

I only know about the molded butter that you buy at Thanksgiving at Publix

.. Nancy May: Yes, I bought that kind at Christmastime and at Thanksgiving and even at Easter.

And guess what?

It's still in your refrigerator.

- Then tell the story before somebody eats it.

That's the part I like.

.. It doesn't have to be expensive.

It has to give people something to talk about

And I'm sure somebody would talk about your butter if you put it out

Well, I guess I just need to find a good excuse to have a party

You better invite me.

Oh, absolutely.

So all right, we need to settle the strawberry question once and for all

So the strawberries were not exactly a mistake.

I just am not very good at following directions, even recipes.

I like to mix it my own way.

So the strawberries were supposed to be roasted beautifully.

They did not quite.

I added balsamic vinegar, like they said I could substitute for vanilla, and didn't add that much sugar

So they went red, black.

. I think it sounds like garnet to me

but they tasted just fine before I put them into the butter.

I had to try that one just in case so I didn't ruin the butter.

Also, I left them in six minutes longer, of course, 'cause they just didn't seem like they were quite

done . So apparently I didn't believe in stopping when the recipe told me to.

Guess what?

That's not unusual on my side.

But they still tasted good.

I mean, they didn't win the beauty contest, but they still tasted good,

they look good in butter and it just looks nice pink and pretty

So, and now Bob's requested pancakes

Again, I know.

Which is either a thoughtful serving suggestion or an ambush for me to make more butter

It does look like a crime scene to me

No, it doesn't.

Trust me on that one.

So how was it on the pancake?

Well, I said earlier it was actually pretty good.

It wasn't too ugly.

, And I also put other stuff on there.

, We ran out of syrup, so I used Magdalena's vanilla syrup that she told me about

in, I think it was December of last year when I made her Swedish ginger cookies.

That was really good

It sounds pretty hoity-toity to me for pancakes

Well pancakes can be hoity-toity,

So the butter is ugly, but it tasted so good

It did.

And that might be the real lesson today.

You don't need to make the prettiest stuff on the plate.

it just needs to taste good.

And you need to taste what's changed and then decide if you actually like it.

It's something like the one bite, no thank you rule

I know that one well.

Now you know why I instilled it.

So before we let you go, five things out of today you can actually use

One, taste before you judge.

Go to the grocery store and pick up a whole bunch of different butters and see which one you like.

Price and a good story can fool your own mouth faster than you think

.. . SYLVIA FRANCE: Two, a mark on butter or anything used to mean something

real, whose it was, and that somebody actually stood behind it

Three, not every symbol means what you think.

A pineapple was showing off wealth long before it meant welcome

. SYLVIA FRANCE: Four, make one compound butter this weekend.

One strong idea.

Let it sit overnight and don't wash six bowls for it

Yeah, one is enough.

And five, give whatever you make a story before somebody else eats it.

It's gonna taste better, I guarantee.

And that's what actually gets remembered, not the shape.

but I have one more thing before we go.

May I add this?

Oh, absolutely.

It's your show

All right, so six.

Try this with your homemade butter if you dare try making it, which is very easy to do.

take a little bit that's left over, it may have fallen out on your counter, and rub it into your hands like cream.

I can guarantee your hands will be softer than butter, darling.

Oh, I can vouch for that.

When I was washing the cultured butter like they recommend, 'cause you have

to do it in ice water, my hands were, like, soft like silk when I got done.

And mine were frozen.

You have to do it fast.

But to the ones who got the butter story and also the mold

We love butter.

Everything's better with butter

And so shall we do one last toast?

You said you didn't like butter rum,

Well, we're gonna do it again and I'm gonna choke this one down

All right.

Send us your butter test results.

Go to Facebook at Family Tree Food Stories.

We'd like to see what you've done.

Really, , it doesn't need to be complicated.

Just try a compound butter, send us a picture.

We'll post ours

And fess up

And tell us honestly whether you follow the recipe or not.

If you're Nancy, you never do

Right.

No judgment rule,

Well, you might get some judgment here

Yeah.

. So next time we're closing out this season or this series with what your own kitchen says about you and where it came from.

I've got some stories to share, Sylvia

Let me guess, one butt or two butt kitchens?

Nah.

That's for next week.

Thank you for listening and for digging into your own kitchen with us.

Happy cooking and of course, happy experimenting

Ugh, God, I should choke down that last glug of hot buttered rum.

Oh, next time . We'll take that off the menu

Please.

Thank you.

Goodbye.