Appetizing Muse

Having been raised with real butter, I dislike margarine unless it becomes an ingredient in a recipe. Even though it's more expensive, I buy butter instead of margarine for a variety of uses.

What would homemade hash browns be without real butter? Or a baked potato? Corn on the cob? Popcorn? Garlic bread? I'm aware there are butter-flavored seasonings on the market, but I have tried most of them and have yet to find one that equals the taste of the real thing. While I was growing up, my mother would sometimes try to fool my father and slip in margarine or a butter substitute, but he was never bamboozled.

The first cooking of my own that met with any great success was a tried and true Wyoming recipe for homemade peanut butter cookies. I was about ten years old at the time. I was delighted by my skill at making criss-cross marks with a fork on top of the cookies. The trick was to dip the fork prongs in flour before each cross, thus avoiding a sticky implement. The particular recipe also called for an entire stick of melted butter. There is no seasoning or margarine that can replace the flavor.

Being such a butter-lover, having stumbled on a web site about the subject matter was a definite good find. The web site Butter includes the history and making of the flavorful utopia, along with butter around the world, detailed descriptions of its composition, how to make it and a glossary of terms.