Eat This Podcast

Bog Butter


Listen Later


Peat diggers in Ireland and elsewhere have occasionally unearthed objects, usually made of wood, that contained some kind of greasy, fatty material with a “distinctive, pungent and slightly offensive smell”.

Butter. Centuries-old butter.

Who buried it, and why, remain mysteries that motivated Ben Reade, an experimental chef at the Nordic Food Lab in Copenhagen, to make some himself. He brought some of his modern-day bog butter, still nestled in moss and wrapped in its birch-bark barrel, to share with the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery last year.

Notes
  1. Ben mentioned two plants that have been found around bog butter, hypnum moss (Hypnum cupressiforme) and bog cotton (Eriophorum angustifolium).
  2. The Nordic Food Lab research blog details all of their astonishing edible experiments.
  3. I found Seamus Heaney reading his poem Bogland at The Internet Poetry Archive.
  4. Caroline Earwood (1997) Bog Butter: A Two Thousand Year History, The Journal of Irish Archaeology, 8: 25-42 is available at JStor, which has a new scheme allowing you to read up to three items at a time online for free.
  5. Music by Dan-O at DanoSongs.com.
  6. Engage
    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    Eat This PodcastBy Jeremy Cherfas

    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9

    4.9

    57 ratings


    More shows like Eat This Podcast

    View all
    This American Life by This American Life

    This American Life

    91,297 Listeners

    Radiolab by WNYC Studios

    Radiolab

    43,837 Listeners

    Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

    Freakonomics Radio

    32,246 Listeners

    Planet Money by NPR

    Planet Money

    30,609 Listeners

    99% Invisible by Roman Mars

    99% Invisible

    26,242 Listeners

    StarTalk Radio by Neil deGrasse Tyson

    StarTalk Radio

    14,353 Listeners

    Savage Lovecast by Dan Savage

    Savage Lovecast

    6,188 Listeners

    Good Food by KCRW

    Good Food

    1,107 Listeners

    The Food Programme by BBC Radio 4

    The Food Programme

    259 Listeners

    Science Friday by Science Friday and WNYC Studios

    Science Friday

    6,467 Listeners

    The Daily by The New York Times

    The Daily

    113,121 Listeners

    Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel by Esther Perel Global Media

    Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel

    14,969 Listeners

    Articles of Interest by Avery Trufelman

    Articles of Interest

    3,563 Listeners

    No Stupid Questions by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

    No Stupid Questions

    3,624 Listeners

    The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

    The Ezra Klein Show

    16,525 Listeners