Butter

[susanstinson]

I'm feeling fond of those on my friendslist who have an affinity for dairy products: folks like anarqueso and gordonzola -- and also, perhaps, amarama (I'm not sure about her feelings for dairy products, but I'm solid on the fondness). Also, fattest, of Creamy Goodness (band and zine) fame, and I suspect grapesoda of having an appreciation of dairy, too.

It's not cheese, but one of my novels, Martha Moody, set in the late nineteenth century, used butter as metaphor throughout the book. I feel like putting up, at least for a little while, some small tastes of that:


I raised my bowl and pulled the tablecloth off with a flourish. The butter was pale yellow and sweating a little, smooth and blank and whole in the bottom of the bowl. I held it out to her, and said, "Could I supply you with butter?"
I wanted to make my own money. I wanted to see more of Martha. Miss Alice gave milk that churned up sweet, and I was patient and attentive to the rising cream.
Martha took the bowl from my hands and set it down on the counter. Without saying a word, she walked down the aisle and came back with a knife and a loaf of bread. She stood next to the cash register and cut a thick slice, then slid the knife into my softened butter and spread it on the bread. She closed her eyes and took a bite. I watched her taste my wares.
She nodded her head. "It's good. Can you bring it in quarter pound balls?" She opened her eyes.
"Yes." There were gold crumbs on her breasts.
She offered me fifty cents a pound, a very good price, then she cut a slice from the loaf for me. I held it in my hand while she leaned across the counter with the butter knife. She made a slow swipe across the bread, then her knife slipped, and she buttered my wrist.
I stood in the road and licked the slick spot after I walked out of Moody's store. I left the rest of the butter with her.

Comments

[charlottecooper.livejournal.com]

Whilst being ambivalent about cheese I must say that I LOVE butter. I remember being told off as a small girl for eating big globs of it neat from a knife. Wouldn't want the girl to get fat, eh? As an adult I like thick butter on my bread, which makes me feel ashamed since I know that this is Wrong. S and K never put enough butter on my toast, I've had to tell them and demand more. I eat lower fat butter-style products, but I secretly crave the real thing, but now I'm thinking of following my true love. My favourite butter flavours involve the creamy saltiness of it mixed with the sweetness of jam or bananas. Yum.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Now, that is a truly stirring testimonial to butter, secret cravings and all, Masked One.

[charlottecooper.livejournal.com]

To which I can only reply: buttercream icing.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Takes the cake.

[charlottecooper.livejournal.com]

Have you ever made butter? If so, what was the result? I remember seeing a series of diagrams when I was a kid that haveremained in my memory ever since. They involved a milk bottle filled with cream, a hand shaking it, and blobby butter the end result. Whenever I'm whipping cream I'm always tempted to go that one step further to see if I can make butter myself.

Also, I am a bit of a sucker for the gourmet butters that you see in expensive supermarkets. I still haven't found my dream butter but it would be a medium-sized pat, possibly from France, stamped with a design, salted and wrapped in some fabulously deigned greasproof paper.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I think I made butter as a kid, but one of my more langorously fabulous moments when I was at the Millay Colony all those years ago was asking them to order some cream for me, and then sitting in my writing studio and whipping it into butter (in a bowl with a fork, I think) so I could write about it for Martha Moody. One of the things I thought of making butter in that book was as a metaphor for the creative process (and a taboo one, too), so I thought I was going to solidify with happiness myself at getting to do that when I was also getting to spend a solid month writing.

Yeah, the resuling butter was kind of weird and pale, though. And it took a long time. But I was so happy. Maybe I'll try to hunt up the resulting passage and post it later.

I haven't seen French butter with a stamp in fabulous paper, although someone around here gave me some truly glorious Irish butter once.

Off to do some new writing before the impulse sours.

[charlottecooper.livejournal.com]

I'm salivating.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

So often, Charlotte, you know just what to say...

[charlottecooper.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I'm thinking that Butterball would be a good Chubster name. Anyone want it?

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

It would be an outstanding Chubster name. Hard to believe that it's not already taken.

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

This is lovely.

I'm a huge fan of greek yogurt, which is a very thick strained, full fat yogurt. I brought some for lunch, with frozen raspberries that should be thawed by the time I'm ready to eat this. I love the creamy yogurt with the tart berries, especially on a snowy February day. It's like a spring tonic for me.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I've never had greek yogurt. Wonder if I can get it around here? I chopped and froze some canned peaches last week, just so I could eat them melting with yogurt (and because I've been out of frozen berries -- hard to get to the store that has them when it's snowy.)

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

Frozen canned peaches! Yummy!

We became addicted to the greek yogurt when they had it at trader joe's but the don't seem to carry it anymore.

Our latest source is a small lebanese market a couple blocks away. I'm thinking you might be in the wrong area to have your own small lebanese or greek market to try, but I could be wrong.

You can make your own strained yogurt by putting a couple layers of cheescloth in in a strainer big enough to hold a quart of yogurt. Let it strain over a bowl until it's about half the size it was and there's 1-2 cups of watery whey in the bowl. Whole milk yogurt is the yummiest, of course, but lowfat is still creamy and exciting. When I've done this, I've saved the whey to use for something else, like pancakes or smoothies.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

No small lebanese or greek market nearby, but now that I know, I'll keep my eyes open to see if I can buy some around here. If not, good to know how to make it.

[charlottecooper.livejournal.com]

Greek yogurt is the best! Do you ever eat it with runny honey and toasted nuts?

I never thought I was particularly bothered by dairy, obviously I was wrong.

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

YES, I love it like that. Last sunday I made walnut pancakes and served them with yogurt and honey over them. YUMMY.

I especially like pine nuts with my honey and greek yogurt, when we have them. Mmmmmmmm.

[charlottecooper.livejournal.com]

Swoon.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm yes Greek yoghurt! Widely available in supermarkets etc in the UK, she gloats.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Go, on then, gloat. You've got a poetry library in London, too, I hear -- a whole library just for poetry!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Poetry Society (http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/index.htm) Library - at a new web address since its old one was hijacked by a Hong Kong site selling Viagra and baldness cures a couple of years ago.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Ooo. Charlotte Cooper told me about this, but I don't think I looked at the poetic sites map! Haworth Parsonage for the Brontes. Tintern Abbey. Coleridge's cottage, and Hardy's, too. The Poetry Cafe in London (where, it seems, there is good cheese to be had.) And all.

[songquake.livejournal.com]

oh my goodness, FULL FAT YOGURT IS THE BEST!!!!

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

It's like ice cream, but better.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Wow. That good?

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

With honey and pine nuts and a little vanilla, I say yes.

Becasue it's a little warmer, it seems more flavorful to me. plus you can make it exactly as sweet--or not sweet--as you prefer, instead of needing a certain amount of sugar for the right texture.

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

NO, you know what? It depends what ice cream. Better than ice cream you get from the market in half gallons, yes. Better than those homemade ice cream places in your town, no.

[fearfuloptimist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it would be hard to beat *that* ice cream. My goodness, delectable as anything I've ever had.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

It's true, Northampton has excellent ice cream.

And also a new, bad ice cream place where they force the employees to burst into song to entertain the lines of customers -- I walked in there once, then walked out when I saw how terrible it must be to work there.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Oh, got it. Thanks for the clarification.

Oh Yeah!

[crazycrone.livejournal.com]

Greek Yoghurt is sublime...with a bit of honey, and sesame seeds flung in... ( slavers grossly-)

Re: Oh Yeah!

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

It surely is getting all out raves around here.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Dairy Pride! Dairy Visibility!

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

dairryiere!

I really should go over there and introduce myself because I love her username so much.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

she's one of my favorite people in the whole world.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Ah, now, that's a truly lovely thing. Maybe I'll get lucky and get to meet her.

[joy-disaster.livejournal.com]

MM is my favorite book. I re-read it about 6 months ago and since then I have been making my own butter in a glass jar and then patting it out in a special wood bowl I keep just for butter. Yummy!

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I love knowing that Martha Moody, very dear to me and now out of print, is your favorite book. And the idea of you making your own butter and patting it out in a special wooden bowl in response to the book -- that's just so good.

[songquake.livejournal.com]

susan, that's such a beautiful and... HOT passage! the sensuality of the butter combined with the sensuality of martha, and the economy of dialogue... ooh! thank you for posting this!

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hon -- butter works that way in the book, too, kind of a lot. Makes me blush a little, myself, even after all these years.

[amarama.livejournal.com]

I've always thought the dairy princess was a good model for me.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Ha! Perfect. Every inch a queen.

[amarama.livejournal.com]

Or...

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I'm looking at this with that very same "it's tiara time" smile on my face, I swear.

A Belated Response

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

My mother's 1941 edition of "The Settlement Cookbook" lists butter, or other fat with a yellow pigment, as a food group. You were supposed to eat some every day, but no amount was specified.