Butter: The History and The How-To

 “Good plain bread spread with good plain butter is one of the simplest pleasures.”  (Mcgee, 2004, p. 36). Butter is something nearly everyone consumes on a daily basis. Whether spread on toast, melted on a potato, mixed with herbs on a steak, cut into flaky dough on a peach cobbler, or drizzled on popcorn, butter has been a rich, creamy staple in the kitchen for centuries. Butter is such a cooking staple that its science and history, which are really quite fascinating, often get overlooked. But this week I have decided to delve into the topic of butter and immerse myself in all there is to know about it.

 The exact time that butter was first discovered and created is still unknown, but it is thought to have been about 4,500 years ago. Originally, butter was nothing fancy, in fact it was consumed by only peasants, “...throughout the Middle Ages [butter] was eaten mainly by peasants.” (Mcgee, 2004, p. 33). But as history progressed, more and more discovered the goodness of butter and reserved it for the nobility, “Over time, Khosrova says, butter became not just beloved but revered.” (Copeland, 2017, p. 1). Throughout history, butter was served to kings and queens, and used in ceremonies and sacrifices. Though these practices have since become extinct, butter has remained a key part of all cooking and eating, not just for the royal, but for all.

  We all know and love butter, but do we truly know how it is formed? When I happened upon the topic of how butter is made, I thought to myself, do I even know how it is made? After confidently answering “no,” I asked my friends if they knew how butter was made. They all replied, “By churning heavy cream until it is butter,” but when I asked them why and how that scientifically and chemically happened, I received a unanimous “no.” This fueled my mission to learn how heavy cream becomes butter. In a nutshell, “Butter making is in essence a simple but laborious operation: you agitate a container of cream until the fat globules are damaged and their fat leaks out and comes together into masses large enough to gather” (Mcgee, 2004, p. 33). It begins with a high fat content milk, usually 35-45% fat, the milk is pasteurized, cooled, and left to age in refrigeration until the fat globules are solid crystals. The milk is then churned, this agitates the fat globules to break apart and connect to the others. This process continues until the milk is one mass, butter! The butter is then formed into the desired shape and chilled until consumed. A simple yet marvellous culinary scientific process.

References

Copeland, L. (2017). Our messed-up relationship with food has a long history. It started with

   butter. The Washington Post. Retrieved from     http://ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e

   dsgao&AN=edsgcl.486607209&site=eds-live.

McGee, H. (2004). On Food And Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. New York, NY: Scribner. Retrieved from http://wtf.tw/ref/mcgee.pdf.