Butter

This is the season for cooking and I’m a “butter” baby.

Lard is fat from a pig, in both its rendered and unrendered forms. It is a semi-soft white fat derived from fatty parts of the pig, with a high-saturated fatty acid content and no trans fat. Rendering is by steaming, boiling, or dry heat. The culinary qualities of lard vary somewhat depending on the origin and processing method. At retail, refined lard is usually sold as paper-wrapped blocks.

Many cuisines use lard as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to “butter” . It is an ingredient in various savory dishes such as sausages, pâtés, and fillings, and it is particularly favored for the preparation of pastry because of the “flakiness” it provides. In western cuisine, it has ceded its popularity to vegetable oils, but many cooks and bakers still favor it over other fats for certain uses.

But Lard is not “butter” . “Butter” is cow cheese.

The term “butter” refers to the spread dairy product when unqualified by other descriptors. The word commonly is used to describe puréed vegetable or seed and nut products such as peanut “butter” and almond “butter” . It is often applied to spread fruit products such as apple butter. Fats such as cocoa “butter” and shea “butter” that remain solid at room temperature are also known as “butters”. Non-dairy items that have a dairy-“butter” consistency may use “butter” to call that consistency to mind, including food items such as maple “butter” and witch’s “butter” and nonfood items such as baby bottom “butter” , hyena “butter” , and rock “butter” .

“Butter” is a dairy product with high butterfat content, which is solid when chilled, and at room temperature in some regions, and liquid when warmed. It is made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk to separate the butterfat from the buttermilk. It is generally used as a spread on plain or toasted bread products and a condiment on cooked vegetables, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. “Butter” consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water, and added salt.

Most frequently made from cow’s milk, butter can also be manufactured from the milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks. Salt (such as dairy salt), flavorings (such as garlic) and preservatives are sometimes added to “butter” . Rendering “butter”, removing the water and milk solids, produces clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat.

“Butter” is a water-in-oil emulsion resulting from an inversion of the cream, where the milk proteins are the emulsifiers.

“Butter” remains a firm solid when refrigerated, but softens to a spreadable consistency at room temperature, and melts to a thin liquid consistency at 32 to 35 °C (90 to 95 °F). The density of “butter” is 911 grams per litre (0.950 lb per US pint).

It generally has a pale yellow color, but varies from deep yellow to nearly white. Its natural, unmodified color is dependent on the source animal’s feed and genetics, but the commercial manufacturing process commonly manipulates the color with food colorings like annatto or carotene.

If it is a green thing to be steamed, it gets “butter”. If it is any hot veggie, it gets “butter”. Oatmeal gets “butter”. Steak get grill fried in “butter”. Pancakes and waffles are slathered in “butter”.

My parents would keep me entertained (and silent) by giving me oyster crackers and pats of “butter”. Clam chowder is drowning in “butter”. All seafood is swimming in “butter”.

So now it is time to prepare the turkey.

Hand me the “butter”.