Originally Published: Washington Post • March 21, 2017
Have you ever eaten butter by the spoon? Butter without toast to prop it up or eggs to fry in it — butter for its own tangy, full-flavored, exquisite sake?
Elaine Khosrova does this, not infrequently. She warms a variety of types to room temperature, gets a glass of water to clear her palate between rounds and pries delicately at her subjects with scientific curiosity, observing how the different textures yield to her knife. Seven types of butter are in front of her today, made from cow, sheep and goat cream, ranging from a sunny gold to a soft, bridal white.
“You see how totally cohesive this is?” she says, prying at the first and mildest sample, a sweet cow butter made in New Zealand by a brand called Anchor. She slides a slab of the thick, pale yellow Anchor onto her spoon.