Butter Bliss

I love Allison Glock's article, "Because We Praise the Lard," in the November 2012 Issue of Southern Living. Her one-page tribute to lard and butter made me realize that I have more in common with the South than I thought.

Recently, Butter-Queen Paula Deen has taken heat for her liberal use of butter and sugar — as if she is responsible for its role in the Southern soul. Paula just capitalized on a good thing. Allison wrote, "Shame has no place in the Southern diet. Agreeable gluttony is a cultural right."

My own connection with butter began in Kindergarten with a jar of heavy cream. We took turns shaking the contents until it reached a sweet, creamy consistency. I watched my teacher intently as she spread the freshly created butter onto saltine crackers. I knew I was about to taste something special. It was heavenly!

Allison shared, "We kept our butter on the table in a cornflower blue, Fiesta Ware keeper, so it stayed soft and, more critically, accessible." My own family used a Franciscan Ware, Desert Rose butter dish for special occasions. Our everyday butter was stored in a covered glass dish in the cupboard designated for sugar, cinnamon, jelly, and peanut butter. Divine design if you ask me. It was sad when it was later relegated to the refrigerator.

French Butter Dish
James Sloss Pottery

As an aside, I now keep my butter accessible in a French Butter Dish, sometimes referred to as a French butter keeper, butter crock or butter bell. The butter stays fresh and spreadable at room temperature. The top section stores the butter and is then lowered into a small amount of water that creates a seal. 

Allison continued, "My family ate butter on everything. Steak. Hard-boiled eggs. Bologna. Peanut butter sandwiches. Cake. As a toddler, I would eat butter plain, spooning it from the dish like ice cream." I plead guilty to all of that except the hard-boiled egg part and I am bound to try it!

I consider adding butter to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich an act of marriage. I also prefer butter frosting on cakes and swoon over herbs and butter on pasta.

Lastly, I memorized a tongue twister from a children's book while babysitting years ago. It was the "butter" theme that grabbed me and I can still recite the twister rapidly. There are a few variations out there, but here is the one I committed to heart.

Betty Botter

Betty Botter bought some butter,

"But," said she, "this butter's bitter;

If I put it in my batter,

It will make my batter bitter!"

So she bought a bit of butter,

Better than the bitter butter,

Put it in the bitter batter,

Made the bitter batter better.

So twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter!

Have a butter-full day!