I can TOTALLY believe it’s not butter!

I have what some (I hope most) of you will find to be distressing news:  Ben and I are living in a land of margarine.

Large grocery stores, small corner markets and every household fridge is stocked with the stuff.

Butter is available also.  It comes from an area about 20 miles from here called the “sertao”.  The sertao is too dry to offer much if any good fruits or veggies.  It’s better known for it’s meat, cheese, milk and butter production.  Although everyone seems to agree that butter from the sertao is better than the endless variety of margarine, no one purchases it.  The reason?  Simple: margarine is cheaper.

Another staple in every pantry: powdered milk.  We believe there are three reasons for this.  1) powdered milk is cheaper and has a longer shelf life 2) Powdered milk is easier as milk from a cow must be filtered, stripped of it’s fatty film and boiled after purchase 3) Cows are fed a mix of grass and de-spined cactus.  The milk tastes just like that mixture!

Well be that as it may, Franca and Edite love cow’s milk and purchase it every week from the corner bar – why yes, beer and milk should naturally be sold together!  So every week she filters the milk, then lets it sit over night so that the fatty film floats to the top.  The next day she skims off that film and puts it in a container in the freezer.  Her freezer is literally packed with containers of what is essentially heavy cream.  

Upon asking her what she does with all those containers, the following events took place:

The frozen "nata" was scooped into a large bowl and this gets filled with water.

        Once thoroughly melted, the mixture gets put into a large glass jar and shaken for 10 min or so.. 

             

It's ready for the next step when when all the nata has separated from the water and looks like cottage cheese.  The excess water is then poured out and the cottage cheese mixture put in a pan to be cooked..

The mixture boils and foams for about 10 minutes and then begins to clarify.  Some salt is added and  JUST before it starts to brown, its taken off the heat, run through some cheese cloth to strain out any impurities and vuala!  Homemade butter.  This is popped in the fridge and used for weeks as a spread, to fry onions or eggs and for baking.

We continue to appreciate the Brazilian's resourcefulness.  It seems they have a use for everything, often things we'd throw away.  There's a trick for every problem and a remedy for every ailment.  All you have to do ask and be willing to learn :)