Juana Isabella de Montoya y Ramirez
Butter on a Spit
Sometimes the study of history seems dry and dull and decidedly lacking in humor. Then you come across silly things that were done in the past apparently strictly for the absurdity of it all.
Butter on a Spit is one of those absurdities. It is not a fancy dish. It is not one that transfers well from the kitchen to the king’s table. It really seems like something done by the kitchen staff for their own amusement. It is an early example of frivolous foods served on sticks … the precursor of cotton candy and corn dogs. Another example is cooking eggs on a spit which is beautifully illustrated by Maestra Donata and written about by An Tir’s Maestro Eduardo in Petits Propos Culinaires #102 (PPC 102 (March 2015) PDF only | Prospect Books)
I know of two late period (Spanish 1611 and English 1615) recipes for Butter on a Spit. Both recipes are given in full at the end. Being me, I did the Spanish one.
My process was as follows:
- Make a ball of butter. To do this I unwrapped the four cubes in a pound of butter and wacked them with a rolling pin until the four melded into one large mass.
- The recipe says to use a wooden skewer. This makes sense since a metal skewer would conduct too much heat and melt the butter from the inside.
- When roasting anything on a spit, it is important to remember that you don’t place the spit over the fire … it goes in front of the fire and you have a dish under whatever food you are roasting so that you can catch any dripping. I had my friend Ivan at Art of Nidavellier make me a small spit set up for my butter. It would also work well for small birds.
- Then I made a mixture of breadcrumbs and sugar. You could get fancy and make bread and then bread crumbs. Also you could use Mexican cone sugar which is, from my research, the closest easy to find approximation to period sugar. Or you can just use breadcrumbs from the store (not seasoned) and white sugar. That’s what I did.
- Roll your butter ball in the sugar breadcrumb mixture.
- Put the spit in front of the fire and turn the butterball slowly. To make sure the ball turns, rather than slipping on the skewer, you can put two or three skewers through the butterball if you like.
- Keep turning the butter and drizzle more of the sugar breadcrumb mixture on it as you go.
- The butter will soften, but the crumbs will offer some structure and insulation. Once you have a good outer coating of crumbs and the butter is soft start scraping bits off and offer them to hungry passersby.
- Keep turning and drizzling ‘til you’ve served as much as your eaters will take.
- Melted butter mixed with the crumbs will accumulate in the dripping dish.
That’s all there is to it.
Recipes for Butter on a Spit
Francisco Martinez Montino Arte de Cocina, Pasteleria, Vizchocheria y Conserveria 1611 Spain, translated by Carolyn Nadeau
Cómo se puede asar una pella de manteca de vacas en el asador
Tomarás una pella de manteca fresca, y espetarla has de punta a punta en un asador de palo que sea muy derecho y cuadrado, y en la punta redondo. Este asador atarás en la punta del asador (264r) de tornillo muy bien, porque no se puede asar en asador de hierro, porque se calentaría y derretiría la manteca por de dentro: y tampoco se puede asar en asador que no tenga tornillo, porque no andaría redondo, y haría derretir la manteca, y como la tengas espetada como está dicho: pon los caballos,[2] y haz una lumbrecilla de carbón, que no sea más ancha que la manteca, poniendo unos ladrillos a los lados, de manera que quede un claro que no sea más ancho que la manteca: luego tendrás cantidad de pan rallado mezclado con azúcar, y pon a asar la manteca, y ha de andar el asador muy redondo, y ha de estar echando uno siempre pan rallado, y azúcar por encima, teniendo una pieza debajo para recoger el pan rallado que se cayere, porque la lumbre que ha de asar la manteca no ha de estar debajo, sino adelante, y ha de haber buena lumbre clara de tizos de carbón: y desta manera irás asando la manteca: y si te das buena maña (264v) a echar el pan, la asarás sin que se derrita gota de manteca, más de la que se empapare en el pan: y cuando vieres que se va abriendo haciendo unas aberturas, o grietas, la darás buena lumbre para que tome color el pan, y la podrás sacar. Siempre quedará en medio un poquito de manteca sin derretir; porque como el asador es de palo, nunca se habrá calentado en medio de la manteca lo que no se pudiera hacer con el asador de hierro. Y advierte, que cuando la manteca vaya más de medio asada, si abriese mucho, sería necesario sacarla, y ponerla en una barquilla, o en un plato hondo con mucho pan rallado, y azúcar debajo, y encima: y luego calentar un horno de cobre con mucha lumbre: y cuando esté muy caliente mete la manteca dentro de su plato, y luego tomará color; y si se desbaratare algo, toma una paleta; y acomódala, que esté de la hechura de pella de manteca fresca, y échale más pan rallado: y desta manera quedará buena. Esta manteca (265r) asada no es más de para averiguar si se puede asar en asador, o no: y es verdad que se puede asar de la manera que tengo dicho, porque yo lo he hecho algunas veces; mas si quisieres hacer esta manteca que venga a estar de la misma manera, como si se asase en asador. Tomarás la manteca así cruda, y mezclarla has con mucho pan rallado y azúcar, de manera que venga a estar como una masa dura, que parezca que es todo pan: luego échala en una barquilla, y ponla sobre unas brasas, y vela acomodando con la paleta, que quede la hechura de una pella de manteca: y si vieres que se rezuma, échale más pan rallado, y cuando esté tostado por un cabo, vuélvela con la paleta, y tuéstala por el otro, y la sacarás que parezca a la otra que se asó en el asador.
How to roast a butterball on a spit
Take a fresh butterball and skewer it from one end to the other with a wooden skewer that is straight and square and has a round tip. Tie this skewer tightly to the end of the rotisserie because you can’t roast it with a metal skewer because it will heat up and melt the butter from the inside. You also can’t use a rotisserie without a screw because it would not turn around and it would melt the butter. When you have it skewered as explained, set up the cobb irons and make a small coal fire that is no wider than the butter by placing bricks on both sides so that a space remains that is no wider than the butter. Then have a lot of bread crumbs mixed with sugar and put the butter on to roast. The rotisserie should be constantly rotating and you should be continually adding breadcrumbs and sugar on top. Place a bowl below to catch the breadcrumbs that fall as the heat for roasting should not be directly below rather in front of it. It should be a good, clean charcoal flame. This is the way to roast butter. If you’re good at putting the breadcrumbs on, you will roast it without a drop of butter melting except for what melts into the bread. When you see any holes or cracks opening up, heat it up enough for the breadcrumbs to brown, and you can take it off. There will always be a little left in the middle that doesn’t melt because the skewer is wooden and it will never heat up like an iron skewer would. Note that when the butter is half roasted, if it opened up a lot, you’ll have to take it off the heat and put it into a barquette mold or in a bowl with a lot of breadcrumbs and sugar underneath and on top. Then heat a copper oven with a lot of heat and when it is very hot, put in the butter in its bowl and let it brown. If it starts to fall apart, use a spatula to keep it in place. It should maintain the shape of a butter ball. Add more breadcrumbs and it will turn out fine this way. There’s nothing more to this roasted butter than finding out if it’s possible to roast on a rotisserie or not. The truth is that it is possible to roast the way I’ve explained because I have done it several times. But, if you want to make this butter so that it comes out the same as if it were roasted on a rotisserie, take raw butter as it is, mix it with a lot of breadcrumbs and sugar so that it turns into a hard dough and looks like the whole thing is bread. Then place it in a barquette mold and place it over red hot coals and begin shaping it with a spatula so that it is the size of a butter ball. If you see that it begins to ooze out, add more breadcrumbs and when it’s toasted on one side, turn it with the spatula and toast the other. When you take it off, it will look just like the other that you roasted on a spit.
Gervase Markham’s The English Housewife (1615)
To Roast a Pound of Butter Well
To roast a pound of butter curiously and well, you shall take a pound of sweet butter, and beat it stiff with sugar and the yolks of eggs; then clap it round-wise about a spit, and lay it before a soft fire and presently dredge it with the dredging before appointed for the pig; then as it warmeth or melteth, so apply it with dredging till the butter be overcomed and no more will melt to fall from it; then roast it brown and so draw it and serve it out, the dish being as neatly trim’d with sugar as may be.
Per Food Historian Ivan Day, the dredge for this recipe is breadcrumbs, currants, sugar and salt.
Food History Jottings: To Roast a Pound of Butter (foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com)