"If I were king," exclaimed a Sicilian shepherd boy, "I would have
goosefat with my bread every day."
While the ancient Greeks and Romans already made many varieties of
bread, butter was known to them only as a medicine, olive oil being
generally used in place of it in the preparing of meals.
It was probably in Italy that really palatable butter was first
churned, and very good butter is made in that country to-day; (that
poor Sicilian boy had evidently never tasted any, else he would have
preferred it even to goosefat!) but the best butter in the world is
marketed in Paris. Not once, during half-a-dozen sojourns in that
city, have I had butter served which it was not a pleasure to eat.
While bad butter, such as most Americans eat daily, seems to be
virtually tabooed in France, there are of course many degrees of
excellence. In May, 1912, we visited a number of the leading Paris
restaurants with the special object of studying these degrees.
Everywhere the butter was very good, but the best, my wife and I agreed
after repeated trials, was served at the Bœuf à la Mode. I therefore
asked the head-waiter to find out from the dairy just how it was made.
He did so, and received in reply a letter which is herewith reprinted
in a translation:
In response to your communication of the twentieth I take
pleasure in answering your questions. Our butter is always
made with the cream of the previous day and after this cream
has fermented twelve hours. In this way to-day's milk is
skimmed at about noon and the cream is cooled to 37-40 degrees
[Fahrenheit], then it is put in a place where it rises to
42°-47° [Fahrenheit] and at this temperature it is kept as
nearly as possible till the next morning, when it is churned.
This method is a satisfactory one, and our butter is right.
Believing that these directions will prove to be what your
customer wishes I beg you to receive my best salutations.