As Simple as Bread & Butter

One of the ultimate comfort foods is bread and butter. Some sources say bread goes back to Mesopatamia with the wonders of yeast being mistakenly discovered around 1000 BC. I think it is fair to say almost every culture, if not all have some version of leavened or unleavened bread.

The creamy, yellow tastiness that is butter was stumbled upon between 9000 and 8000 BC. Not surprising, since many of us today have, at some point, gotten distracted and made butter by whipping cream a little too vigorously. The word actually comes from the Greek bou-tyron or "cow cheese."

The point is, we are programmed, through thousands of years to love fat either eaten on its own or slathered on a carbohydrate.

To the right is a photo of the butter I make from humanely-raised (about 15 minutes away) cow's milk and buttermilk beside it. The buttermilk you get in the separation of butter is not thick and tangy (fermented) as in stores. It is very white, and has the consistency of milk. You can make your own easily if you have 10 minutes and a hand-held electric mixer. Trust me, it is worth the miniscule amount of effort. Although it does take roughly 21 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of butter, all you really need is enough to spread on your toast. That figure depends on how much cream a specific breed produces.

After the milk is thoroughly separated, form the yellow butter into a ball, put in a big bowl and wash it in cold water, kneading it with your fingers to get as much leftover buttermilk out as possible. The smaller the quantity of buttermilk, the longer your butter will last.

The photo below is of home-made bread using the no-knead technique. Let's put it this way: if I like it, anyone can have success with it. You get beautiful artisan loaves, full of those great holes bakers strive towards. Incidentally, the holes are formed by the CO2 byproduct of yeast, it fills areas of the rising bread, causing holes when the bread is baked.


The length (total about 20 hour, more or less) of the rise develops the bread's flavor. One of the best parts about this kind of bread, versus the more common bread-machine style loaves is that, because of the lengthy rise, you need just a minuscule (1/4 tsp or less) amount of yeast. I will post a recipe in the recipes section later on.

So enjoy your comfort foods, knowing that all of the additives and preservatives were replaced by a little work and a lot of care!

By the way, if you still feel giulty about eating butter, don't forget that if you get your milk unpasteurized (assuming you can find it,) it is full of healthy nutrients and free of hormones. However, fat is not bad for you! The snack isle is.