The Great Big Butter Cookbook: Because Everything's Better with Butter

This collection, focusing on a single ingredient and assembled by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board seeks to remind readers of the usefulness and versatility of butter in the kitchen. The book's prologue highlights the relative healthfulness (compared with margarine, anyway) of butter, despite its reputation for clogging arteries. That leads to a “Cooking with Butter” basics chapter that explains the differences between European, cultured and whipped butter styles, and suggestions for when to use salted or unsalted varieties. While one might assume that butter's culinary role is rooted in baking and sauces, recipes here run the gamut from appetizers like Camembert Almond Balls and Blue Cheese Walnut Wafer to a cream-free Mexican-Style Corn Soup and Florentine Game Hens, with plenty of pastry, cookies, cakes and pies in between. There are also several recipes for compound butters, like a wild mushroom and shallot butter meant to accompany a sautéed steak. The book's most inventive ideas belong to the Sauces, Spreads and Condiments chapter, with its wide array of spreadable, meltable and pourable butters in both savory and sweet flavors. Throughout, recipes are clearly written and easy to follow, and colorful photos bring out all the golden richness of this dairy product. Trans-fat free though it might be, butter is still fattening, making this a special occasion cookbook rather than an essential cookbook for the day-to-day. (Nov.)