Any cooks or foodies out there? Help! :)

I think that is too much butter, with shortbread and poundcake it would all be too rich. Try some soft cheeses, caviar with lemon wedges, shrimp salad, curried chicken salad with grapes, celery and nuts, get a variety of bread and crackers, maybe make a big pot of soup to go with it. That's what I would do, anyway.

Damn, an artisanal butter tasting? Fabulous!

One of my favorite things in rural Alaska was getting fresh king crab - when I lived there I had a subsistence fishing permit, which meant I could catch modest amounts of fish for my personal use for free. I still dream about having freshly boiled king crab legs with a side of freshly minced garlic and melted butter. I can only imagine how much awesomer it would have been with artisanal butter. My humble suggestion for your party would be to offer some sort of seafood, such as crab, scallops*, or oysters, with artisanal butter as a side. I have also had some amazing seafood crêpes with a rich butter sauce, that is another possibility. I now live in a landlocked state, but with frozen transit it is still possible to get decent seafood.

Of course, other foods to showcase the pure butter would be excellent, too. I also think that it is best to keep things as simple as possible so that people can truly appreciate the pure, unadulterated butter. I can't think of anything better than an assortment of freshly baked bread for your guests to try with the various butters. I don't like crackers so I am biased against them, but I think that having an assortment of finger food to try with the various butters is a great idea.



*(If you do buy scallops, I recommend buying the real kind, and not the ones that are cookie-cuttered out from skate wings. I also recommend seeking out "dry" scallops, instead of the "wet" ones that are treated with STP or sodium tripolyphosphate.)

I'd serve the butters with different breads too (crunchy or soft, olive oil bread, milk bread, bread with olives, bread with nuts, bread with rosemery etc...) and also with different tasty things (salty olives, sweet and sour small onions, anchovies, smoked salmon, dried tomatoes, chilly pepper salami, radish, mix of herbs...
and for the great end, a small trio of high quality (mot the mass market ones) jams: orange, candied quince, strawberrry.

I would say warm French bread or rolls or loaves of homemade white bread, yummy but more neutral than more "interesting" bread, so you can really taste the variance in butter flavors. I would then add some homemade lentil soup
and arugola salad with vinaigrette. Fruit and coffee for dessert, if you wish, because that butter, while delicious, will be enough fat for the evening.

If you really want to highlight the different butters, you'd need the "control" of one kind of honest-but-plain bread - while the previous suggestions of flavored/herby breads are good, I think that's too many distractors from the butter itself. Likewise, plain bread in between with plain old water as a palate cleanser will help your guests differentiate.

Make sure the butter is all at room temperature, too.

Have the other breads, etc. at the ready after the "official" tasting. Although I do LOVE the idea of preparing 6 different pound cakes to highlight the cooked butter flavors, this would truly be a labor of love.

Baguettes, of course, but don't forget Irish soda bread. Its rustic, dense quality makes a perfect foil for flavored butters. Soda bread is especially good with a nice, slightly sour goat's milk butter. Many people think it smells bad; however, this isn't so -- it's just that it smells very "chemical" when baking. (Btw, I'd use soda bread that has had at least 12 hours to cool. "Day old" is even better, I think, though the Irish themselves generally prefer it fairly fresh.)

Want to bake WITH butter? How about a nice, rich shortbread? There's always bread pudding slathered with honey, rum and a huge knob of good butter.

Pound cakes can't be beat, but they CAN be improved upon. Try soaking one with a butter/booze mixture (rum's esp. good) 24 hrs. or more prior to serving.

Oh, is there anyone who would care to post a recipe for mac and cheese, PLEASE?
It would be awesome to get a *standard* recipe (have never tried to make it), preferably with European measures (grams, liters etc).

:bounce:



Great your party was great, btw!!!