Jeremy! Truffle oil! Of course!! (we really need a drooling graemlin)

I made some honey/pecan butter this weekend. It was T A S T Y!! Smeared that good stuff on some hot biscuits with a hot cup of strong coffee! I was in heaven!

It's surprising how quickly the butter forms once the mixture reaches a certain point. You have to shake the bejabbers out of the container - or use a churn. Isabel (my 3-year old) had fun helping.

Another good trick is to use colder cream.

Lilac, we made butter exactly the way you described in 2nd grade. We used reused Gerber baby food jars. And the reason why its a good idea to tape the lid on is because 6-7 year olds get impatient shaking the jar and open them up to find out what the delay is and spill the cream (that was me).

One time (in my teenage years) my sister and I were making whipped cream (unsweetened) and over- whipped the cream and ended up with butter. We added salt, toasted some bread and told mom we made fresh butter.

I made Lilacs butter last weekend, it was fun.

It's good too, isn't it TCK? Makes great herbed or spiced butter.

It was the novelty that I enjoyed. When you tell somebody that they are eating home made butter they kind of look at you like "this guys crazy, what kind of a guy does this".

TCK

I used my truffle butter on Sunday night in a mushroom and parsley risotto I made. I guess that means its a truffle, mushroom and parsley risotto.

Board-O

There are 2 main reasons why a recipe may ask for unsalted butter. The first is seasoning. Seasoning is a fundemental skill of being a chef, and they like being in control of how much goes into there food. The second is the amount of water content. Believe it or not salted butter contains a higher water content, and while unimportant for most recipes, is incredibly important for pastry type recipes.

Hope this helps!

I kind of figured controlling the salt content had something to do with it, but I was unaware of the increased water content in salted butter. It can't be too much water, because the labels list the exact same fat content and calories per tablespoon.

You're correct that the difference is minimal, but you'd be surprised at how much difference the water content makes in a pastry dough, especially in the summer when it's humid.

ahhh, yes. That infamous Toronto humidity. I feel for ya, brother!

Not many places can compete with Washington DC and vicinity humidity. Ugh!

TJ,'
You obviously haven't been to Philly lately!

I'll put my money on South Florida in the Summer.

Anybody ever been to Guam? Pick the time of year, doesn't matter.

You know Board-o, you're right. I remember going in to Everglades National Park into one of their 'hammocks walks' and was immediately assailed by every flying insect on earth. And MAN was it humidly disgusting.

We rarely ever go there in the Summer, but last year we spent four days at our place in South Florida in the middle of our trip, and even at 1 in the morning, the humidity is close to 100%. New Orleans is like that in the Summer also.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/10/05/pot.alzheimers.reut/index.html

I dunno about you, but I will continue fighting Alzheimer every way I can, and this seems like a best cure for me.
Thank you scientists, you rock...for a change.