Cooking with Butter
Butter production is so common and industrialized today that it’s remarkable to think that it might have been born out of serendipity some 9,000 years ago. Allegedly, milk in an animal-skin sack sloshed around so vigorously during transport that its fat separated from its water and aggregated into divinely rich globs.
However butter came about was undeniably good fortune—culinary happenstance that writer Elaine Khosrova describes as “Rumpelstiltskin-like magic” in her book, Butter: A Rich History (2016). But more plainly than that, butter is evidence of science at work, from the organic way it forms to the innumerable ways it functions. We cooks are indebted to both its utility and its luxury, marveling at—and relying on—its ability to shape-shift from a stiff block that laminates pastry dough to a creamy mass that captures air in cakes and cookies; an opaque liquid that blooms spices and glosses flatbreads; or a complex, nut-brown sauce that is spooned over countless dishes.
The Butter Breakdown
Butter is an emulsion of fat, water, and milk solids—specifically, a water-in-oil emulsion in which tiny droplets of water and trace amounts of milk solids are suspended throughout the butterfat. Together, these components give butter the potential to be a remarkable multitasker: a high heat–tolerant cooking fat, a source of moisture, and a flavor powerhouse.
FAT
By law, butter manufactured in the United States must have at least 80 percent fat. (Premium butters contain between 82 and 86 percent fat.) Because butterfat is highly saturated, butter is solid and its emulsion is stable well above room temperature.
