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On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore
of the Kitchen
 
Home Cooking:
A Writer in the Kitchen
Biscuits Lefevre Utile
Giclee Print
Mucha, Alphonse
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Time for Tea
Robert Walker...
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La Belle Cuisine
"Cookies are made of butter and love."
~ Norwegian Proverb
"No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a
cook
in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice
and menus of
cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers."
~ Laurie Colwin
Butter
 
More Home Cooking:
A Writer Returns to the Kitchen
by Laurie Colwin, 1995, HarperPerennial
[Yes, there
really is a shortbread recipe coming. Just could not
bring
myself
to omit
Laurie's marvelous butter commentary...]
"Years and years and years ago, when people still served rib roast without
batting
an eye and before the surgeon general had determined that cigarettes
were bad
for
you, my mother would make butter balls. She took very cold pats
of butter
and
rolled them between two flat, ridged wooden paddles that had
been chilled
in the freezer beforehand – these paddles used to appear before
dinner parties to
fancy
up the butter – working them until they became
little balls, with cross-
hatched
surfaces. Then, she made a hole in each
ball, sprinkled in a pinch of
sugar and
a drop of lemon juice, and put the
balls in the fridge. Later, my sister
and I were
allowed to eat the butter
balls as a treat, and, believe me, they were wonderful.
There is nothing like butter. As Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, says, it is a sauce in itself
and needs no em- bellishments. I cannot think of anything butter does not
render more delicious,
and I have never met anyone who doesn’t love butter,
although many people
have given it up for reasons of health.
Unfortunately, no substitute for it exists. Father Robert Farrar Capon, in
his
noble book, Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection , suggests that,
if you are going to
refrain
from butter, you ought not con yourself into accept-
ing some nasty
imitation.
He
feels people ought to use good-quality olive oil
and, once in
a while, allow
a
measure of real, true, pure butter. This is
extremely
sensible advice.
There are, as we know, two kinds of butter: salted and sweet. The salted is
a hangover from the days before refrigeration, when people salted their
butter
to
keep it from going bad, and it is now part of the American palate.
I myself
prefer sweet, and, even in the days when I was a salt addict, I
used to spread
my bread
with sweet butter and sprinkle salt on top. When
people asked why I
didn’t simply
buy salted butter, I pointed out that sweet
butter – even with a
little salt on top –
has a totally different flavor.
Semolina bread, sweet butter,
and a little sea salt
is a combination
I would
happily walk over hot coals for.
There is also something called ‘whipped’ butter, a substance I have never
under- stood unless one likes a quantity of air in one’s food. Apparently this
stuff spreads better, but I am of the school that, except in the dog days of
summer,
believes in leaving butter out. I hate to put it in the fridge,
where it often
becomes what my mother used to call ‘ice-boxy’. If you leave
it out, it stays nice
and spreadable; furthermore, it is my belief that the
taste of things at room temperature is their
true taste.
Luckily, you can find ways around a life without butter. Place by your night
table some books on Mediterranean or Chinese cooking, two of the many cui-
sines that
do not use butter. Make sure the bread you buy is sensational:
Really
good bread needs nothing at all, which comes as a shock to people who
feel
that a piece of
bread is
the mere vehicle for a large slab of butter.
If you don’t
live near a
wonderful bakery, find one from which to
mail-order, or take up
baking. You
can buy or make some really wonderful jam
and some first-rate
organic peanut
butter. You might also
treat yourself to
a bottle of rich, green,
fruity extra-
virgin olive oil…
…After you have been a very good person for a very long time and are as thin
as
a bean, you may decide to fall briefly into sin. You will want something
simple
and elegant that cannot be made without butter. There is only one
thing that
will do: shortbread.
I would rather eat shortbread than any cake or cookie in the world. I would
turn
my back on a chocolate truffle or a banana split for one piece of
crisp,
melting shortbread. It is the essence of butter. Although you can
fancy short-
bread up by serving it with vanilla ice cream or turning it into
cookies with raspberry jam or messing around and putting toasted walnuts or
ginger in
it –
the pure, plain thing
is a wonder in itself. A child can make
it, and
often
shortbread is the first thing children learn to bake.
Classic Shortbread
1. Cream 1
stick (1/2 cup) of butter with 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar.
Add 1/2
teaspoon vanilla.
2. Work in 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
sifted with 1/4 cup rice flour, 1/8 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/8 teaspoon
salt. (Classic Scottish
recipes
use rice flour to give the shortbread a
slightly grainy crisp-
ness that is very delicious. You can find rice flour at
specialty food
shops and natural food stores. However, if an extra stop is
not on
your shopping agenda, you
may eliminate the rice flour and use 1
cup
all-purpose flour.)
3. Pat the
dough into an 8-inch circle on an ungreased cookie sheet.
This recipe gives
you a very soft, delicate dough, so be patient
with it. Before baking, score
the dough, making 6 wedges, and
mark the edge with the
tines of a fork.
4. Bake the
shortbread in a preheated 375-degree F oven for about
20 minutes, or until
the edge is golden brown.
5. While the
shortbread is still warm, cut it into the wedges with a
sharp knife.
There you have it. A true, no-fault, idiot-proof dessert, beloved by
adult
and
children (animals often go for it, too). And once a year,
as a special
reward,
there is no better use for a quarter pound
of butter."
Featured
Archive Recipes:
Laurie Colwin on
Gingerbread
Charleston
Shortbread Cookies
NOLA's Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies
More on butter:
Bless Butter, Cream and Simple
French Fare (Nigella Lawson)
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