From Buttercups & Daisies to Anchovies
Via Butter Tax Buckets, Bog Butter, Elder Trees, Fairies, Toast Recipes & Iocane Powder
Dearest Gentle Reader,
I have been trying to write this since at least last Thursday but it has finally come to a point where I couldn’t not write it so here we are. The real inspiration for this is probably no mow May, and the resulting long grass verges everywhere around where I work. In lots of places the talented grounds staff have scattered ridiculous amounts of wildflower seeds, presumably to make it look more intentional instead of overgrown. In those places you can’t move for gorgeous giant daisies which are ridiculously beautiful in their huge numbers. I however, have a soft spot for the patches that have avoided the wildflower seed packet and really have gone back to nature. Those ones where the buttercups and clover have asserted themselves.
Buttercups and daisies are the flowers of my childhood, the daisies were the slightly less glamorous variety that grew in everyone’s grass and I would deck myself out in chains in the form of necklaces, bracelets and headdresses. They started as glorious flower jewellery but sadly grew progressively more limp as the day wore on. Buttercups did not meet the same fate or at least not in the same numbers, being reserved for the very important job of checking your companion’s affiliation for butter. This kind of activity sadly disappears as you grow, perhaps for the best as proffering wildflowers at strangers and demanding proof of their non-plant based diet may not be looked upon kindly.
I had plans to find out all the non butter connected folklore and folk medicine concerning buttercups but it turns out there isn’t much. In fact there isn’t much butter related folklore associated with them either, apart from the fact that it was believed that it made butter better if cows ate them. Which isn’t in fact true and cows usually avoid them, its just that buttercups are a sign of good soil, hence good grass, better milk and better butter.
It will come as no surprise that I love butter, all sorts. My absolute favourite is that special farmhouse butter with tiny salt crystals in it but frankly in a pinch, any slightly salted butter will do. Spread thickly on warm crusty bread, whipped & spooned onto caraway rolls, melting into pools on muffins just for starters.
There is so much history and folklore around butter that I am just going to share my favourites with you. Firstly, did you know how old butter is? There is definitely evidence of a vertically designed butter churn in ancient Sumer around 3500BCE which reinforces the theory that it originated from the nomadic peoples of Central Asia. I’m not quite sure how it got to Northern Europe but it has been around a long time. It wasn’t viewed with much love in Greece and Rome where they preferred olive oil, which is obviously very nice in its own way.
It became increasingly important throughout the Northern European countries, to the extent that at one point the King of Norway demanded a bucket of butter in tax each year. Ireland even required a butter exchange to regulate the trade because it was so key to the economy. There have been amazing archeological finds of butter placed in Irish bogs to age. More commonly known as bog butter, it is apparently potentially edible even though it is thousands of years old. There is much argument about the reasons for storing butter in bogs, originally thought to be just for storage, possibly as protection against famine but it has even been suggested that these were offerings to long forgotten gods.
That leads us beautifully into butter making folklore which is so extensive that I’m going to just choose my favourites: firstly a bunch of wild thyme, laid by the milk in the dairy was said to prevent milk, butter and cheese from being spoiled by thunder. If butter doesn’t come properly when you are churning or shaking you should tie a sprig of rowan or mountain ash around your churn. If this still doesn’t work, you should take an iron poker and heat it until red hot, touch each corner of the dairy or room you are making butter in and then place briefly in the milk to rid it of any fairy mischief.
There is even folklore around preventing the theft of butter: Taking a lit coal from the fire, placing it briefly in the milk before churning, placing yellow blooms at all the boundary places; skimming May morning dew water from the surface of a well or streams and rivers to rinse the butter; or driving an iron nail into the bottom of the butter churn. The much more aggressive action of driving milk cattle over embers or between two fires was also employed but less often.
I suppose you think a butter based story is in order now, don’t you? Well, unsurprisingly I have one, this time from “Ancient legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland” by Lady Wilde. I love his little tale with its fabulous folklore pedigree full to the brim with elder, witchcraft, fairies and dairy but it is a little short so I will be throwing in my favourite butter recipes and a book recommendation at the end, just for those butter fans amongst you if you would like to keep reading.
The Butter Mystery
There were two brothers who had a small farm and dairy between them, and they were honest and industrious, and worked hard to get along, though they had barely enough, after all their labour, just to keep body and soul together.
One day while churning, the handle of the dash broke, and nothing being near to mend it, one of the brothers cut off a branch from an elder-tree that grew close to the house, and tied it to the dash for a handle. Then the churning went on, but to their surprise, the butter gathered so thick that all the crocks in the house were soon full, and still there was more left. The same thing went on every churning day, so the brothers became rich, for they could fill the market with their butter, and still had more than enough for every buyer.
At last however, they began to fear that there was witchcraft in it, and that they were wronging their neighbours by abstracting their butter, and bringing it to their own churn in some strange way. So they both went off together to a great fairy doctor, and told him the whole story, and asked his advice.
“Foolish men,” he said to them, “why did you come to me? for now you have broken the spell, and you will never have your crocks filled with butter any more. Your good fortune has disappeared, know the truth now. You were not wronging your neighbours; all was fair and just that you did, but this is how it happened. Long ago, the fairies passing through your land had a dispute and fought a battle, and having no arms, they flung lumps of butter at each other, which got lodged in the branches of the elder-tree in great quantities, for it was just after May Eve, when butter is plenty. This is the butter you have had, for the elder-tree has a sacred power which preserved it until now, and it came down to you through the branch you cut for a handle to the dash. But the spell is broken now that you have uttered the mystery, and you will have no more butter from the elder-tree.”
Then the brothers went away sorrowful, and never after did the butter come beyond the usual quantity. However, they had already made so much money that they were content. And they stocked their farm, and all things prospered with them.
Before I move on to my favourite buttery recipe, may I just pop back to Buttercup or at the very least the name Buttercup? Princess Buttercup is the heroine of one of my favourite films: The Princess Bride. I have had a copy of this film in various formats since August 1990 (which is somehow a very long time ago) and only found out in 2024 that there is an official cookbook. I will be obviously making Buttercup Buttermilk scones amongst many others but this is just a heads up for any other fans (they also have a recipe for iocane powder punch which is particularly exciting).
So recipe number one, for anyone who has lasted this long, is toast. I know, everyone can make toast but can you make my Mum’s travel toast? This is perfect for day trips, both sad and happy train journeys, emergency work day breakfasts and pretty much any journey. First make toast, preferably from bread that has got some substance to it, maybe wholegrain but truly white sliced will do in a pinch. The toast must be not burned but look as though that would be the next logical step. The next part is essential: let it go completely cold by making little triangles of the slices against each other like an edible card game. This way the toast will remain non soggy. Once completely cold, spread with your favourite butter in a heavy handed fashion. Put butter side to butter side against each other and stack. Wrap in greaseproof paper and then lovely crunchy foil. You are now equipped for pretty much any expedition short of the North Pole.
If you have no travel plans in the near future but still want some butter based goodness may I recommend a lovely, crispy skinned jacket potato, just out of the oven and fill it with a big dollop of salted butter to melt into the fluffy goodness.
Finally, if you will insist on making something with the butter rather than just applying it to food in generous quantities, may I suggest the following two recipes: Munavoi or egg butter - mix 3 peeled, crushed, hard boiled eggs (10 min boil plus a dip in iced water to improve peelability)with 100g soft room temperature butter, add a pinch of salt. This is amazing on hot rye toast, and even better on bagels. I tried it first on Karelian Pies whilst in Helsinki and had to be dragged away whilst I still had room for other things on the traditional Finnish food buffet.
Finally: anchovy butter - take 5 anchovies(not marinated) and mash in a pestle and mortar and then add 100g soft butter and mash into the anchovies until all combined then tip the flavoured butter onto a square of baking parchment or cling film, roll it around the butter to form a sausage shape, then twist the ends to seal. The resulting parcel can be stored for up to 3 days in the fridge or up to a month in the freezer without losing oomph. I must admit that I don’t always bother with the mixing, quite often I tear the bread, generously spread the butter and balance the anchovies on top of each piece. Either way, it is absolutely perfect with a glass of really tooth-achingly cold white wine.
And just before I leave you, if I have tempted you with all this butter and you would like to further revel in butter adjacent recipes, then I heartily and unreservedly recommend Butter: A Celebration by Olivia Potts. It is a glorious and joyous wallow in this fabulous ingredient and if that isn’t enough of a recommendation then I might also whisper that Nigella really loves it and if it's good enough for a Goddess, who are we to argue?
I must now bring this letter to a close. Please don’t hesitate however, to get in touch via the comments via any of my social media profiles/my website . If you have enjoyed this and would like to read further such nonsense and have not yet subscribed, please don’t hesitate to subscribe for free at the button below. You’d be very welcome and it would be a joy to write to you.