Bread and Butter

My Butter

Milkfat (also known as butter fat) is present in milk as microscopic globules kept separate by their phospholipid and protein membranes. Agitating cream (churning it) breaks up these membranes and the fat conglomerates, forming butter. Food science is fascinating!

My Butter by Yoh Kakuda

One of Japanese Karakuri Creation Group artist Yoh Kakuda’s earliest works is all about the butter, and there isn’t much that’s better than butter. But the box was actually not originally meant to be a story about butter. Kakuda tried to remember some details about the puzzle, but it has admittedly been a long time. “I'm happy to ask me about "My Butter", but it was too old to remember well.... What I remember is that I was trying to create a work that was completely different from that. However the idea was difficult for me at the time and also there was a dead line. So I changed the idea to the cow box. It was easy to think the mechanism than the first idea.

it’s got moo’s like butter

I read somewhere that you should rub the cow's belly to get her to produce good milk. I thought butter would be easier to express than milk and would be just right for the box. So named "My Butter". I remember how difficult it was to round up the cow patterns one by one. There were five patterns on each cow!”

better not have butterfingers

Kakuda made two versions of the cow; the first one white with brown spots, and a follow up version a few years later in brown with white spots. But both version tell a similar story, and that is how Kakuda thinks about all of his creations. “Honestly, I don't think that I am making puzzles. When I was a student I got interested in Karakuri Doll of Edo era. As I researched karakuri dolls, I learned about British and Japanese automata works. It was very interesting, enjoyable, and drew me in. I even chose automata as my graduation project at art college. Later, I learned about karakuri boxes and was amazed at their technology. It had a different appeal from automata. I didn't know what I could make, but I had a vague idea in my mind of "a wooden object that moves + an end point of opening."  That sounds like [something] interesting and enjoyable. There is a box and people who try to open the box. If they don't open the box, the story doesn't start. If they try to find the way, the story is found. They dialogue with the box. I would like to see the dialogue, so I make boxes. That is what I think about my works.”

Butterscotch Den Old Fashioned by Trevor Eastor and Britta Currie

I’m a fan of butter in general, and on the sweet spectrum absolutely love butterscotch too. Butterscotch is the simple combination of melted brown sugar and butter, mixed with cream. Unlike caramel, which uses a similar formula but with white sugar, butterscotch is less fussy and easier to make, which is a great trade off, even if it may not be as rich or complex in flavor. If you are a fan of the classic “Old Fashioned” cocktail, a traditional whiskey drink sweetened with a bit of sugar and a dash or two of cocktail bitters, you may have experimented with different types of sugar, which can dramatically change the whole drink. Now that you mention it, how about butterscotch?

butter side up

There’s probably no better place to try a butterscotch Old Fashioned than at Sacramento, California’s retro cool Butterscotch Den, a “seventies” style grill-your-own steakhouse, cocktail bar and lounge. Their signature house drink represents the bar’s desired ethos of low-brow high-brow, having fun with using butterscotch in the typically more sophisticated cocktail, but using high quality ingredients and an elevated process one might expect from bar veteran and co-owner Trevor Eastor. The base consists of Tennessee whiskey (unique for its charcoal filtering) with hints of rye and rum, which is sweetened by an elixir they call “Butterscotch Magic” (butterscotch liqueur plus an equal amount of demerara syrup). As if that weren’t enough, the drink is finished with butterscotch Chartreuse bitters, an outrageous and outstanding homemade concoction of butterscotch candy dissolved into Angostura bitters and mixed with green Chartreuse. Now that’s my butter! Cheers!

buttering you up

Butterscotch Den Old Fashioned by Trevor Eastor and Britta Currie

1 ½ oz Tennessee whiskey

¼ oz rye whiskey

¼ oz medium-aged rum

¼ oz “Butterscotch Magic”

2 dashes butterscotch Chartreuse bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass over a large cube. Recommended garnish is a dehydrated orange wheel.

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