Things I Didn't Know I Needed To Know

Regarding My Cooking, I Try To Never Stop Learning...


Recently I was mindlessly watching Alton Brown on Food Network cook something in the last few weeks while working on my Truffle and Chili recipes, and the words Plugra European Style Butter stuck in my mind from his dissertation.

Alton was basically poo-pooing on my cheap store brand unsalted semi-sweet butter I buy three pounds of at a time when it's on sale for $2.99 a pound and keep in my freezer.

And here I was thinking I was some kind of culinary genius because I bought and stockpiled massive quantities of unsalted butter in my home, purchased on sale at low low prices.

I swear I break out in a cold sweat if I look in the two fridges and deep freeze and don't see two or three pounds of butter in our inventory...but I digress...

So any way, right after I heard Alton's reference to the Plugra (which happens to be a brand as well as a "style" of butter in this instance"), when I was raiding our local Fresh Market Grocer of their inventory of Ghiradelli Chocolate I also noticed that they stocked the "Plugra" brand and I bought a couple of sticks--a half pound--for about five dollars.

Then last night I had to break a stick out of the Fridge because all of my usual inventory was frozen solid, and I needed something to make my Bearnaise Sauce to go with the beef tenderloins, Asparagus, and Red Potatoes on the evening's dinner menu.

Boys and Girls, I have to admit that I was speechless when I tasted the stuff raw.

Forget the flavor for a minute, even the texture of this Dairy Ambrosia is different from the wax that they're selling us with a wrapper with the words "Butter" stenciled on it .

If you already knew about it, feel free to smirk and feel superior to me in my infinite Blogger Self Impotence.

If you didn't know, drop what you're doing right now and go buy five pounds and hoard it in your freezer, because this weekend I'm buying everything else I can find on the shelf and putting on my parka and sleeping with it in my fridge.

Or smearing myself all over with it and runing around outside nekked yelling "Plugra Rules"...

Or...WAIT...never mind...