Fairy Butter

I'd like to find the ingredients for this and do it! Remember reading somewhere (who knows where!) that Martha Washington made this exact butter for gingerbread. I bet it would be lovely on warm gingerbread!

Well I did find orange blossom water which I assume is the same thing here - https://www.kingarthurflour.com/sho...aSmsVmviohiQrWlnQBEc-FYtYnS_6Ya4aAkSyEALw_wcB

As for fine sugar, maybe you could use powdered sugar as a substitute. I can't help you with fresh churned butter, but maybe you could use good fresh organic butter and let it set out at room temperature for a while. Also, I assume two hard eggs means hard boiled yolks - right?

Replace to f in the text with an s. To make more sense of ingredients and method

Thank you for mentioning that! I take for granted that people know the weird f character in pre-19th century text is really an s. I'm too used to reading old recipes and various genealogy documents now to not automatically substitute it in my mind as I read.
 
@Anna Elizabeth Henry, the name of this butter was enough to make me want it. I agree with @diane. I bet it would spread like fairy dust on top of some warm gingerbread.

LOL! I know when I saw it I was like fairy butter!?!? I thought it was an early name for whipped butter, but was pleasantly surprised. I forget which chain restaurant I went to where they serve warm rolls with cinnamon tinged light as air whipped butter, but it's pure heaven!:hungry:

I used to have a recipe for orange gingerbread...I'll keep looking! Gingerbread, to me, is too strong a flavor to mix with coffee, so I usually like it with tea. Seems to make a good balance!

Ooo! I LOVE gingerbread - I've never tried orange gingerbread, but I can see how that might add a little something different to the spicy mix. And I totally agree, gingerbread is best enjoyed with tea, especially a good strong breakfast tea.
 
I poked around some more about Fairy Butter and found out it was served by Dolly Madison and appears to be adapted to the below modern variation from the "Presidents' Cookbook" in 1968. So, @diane give it a whirl if you decide to order orange blossom water. Should you use rosewater, always make sure it's cooking grade rosewater and not the cosmetic grade one!

Ingredients
  • Yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs*
  • 1 tablespoon orange-flower water (or try rosewater)
  • 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
  • 2 ounces (½ stick) butter, softened
Instructions

Using a mortar and pestle or a fork, mash the yolks. Add the orange-flower water and the powdered sugar and mash together until smooth.

Mash in the butter and then scrape the mixture into a fine-grained strainer and push the compound butter through. Scrape into a small serving bowl and smooth the top.

*For fully cooked yolks that still have a creamy texture, put the eggs in the water after it’s boiling and boil the eggs for 12 minutes.

Source - http://www.americanfoodroots.com/recipes/fairy-butter/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top