Is bread and butter the ultimate comfort food?

January 16, 2024 by
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Writing for Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams makes a bold statement, saying there is no better comfort food than bread and butter. After describing a perfect French breakfast of a crusty baguette, still warm from the oven paired with luxurious butter from Brittany. “What is it about bread and butter that hits the spot like nothing else in the world?” Williams ponders, attempting to answer that query and its follow-up, “Why is that specific combination just so damn good?”

Some people contend it’s the bread that makes or breaks this combo, positing that the allure lies in the tactile experiences you get from a loaf with a crackly crust contrasting with a chewy, fluffy interior. Others think that ‘the butter betters the bread’ (which is a paraphrase of the motto on my local creamery’s butter wrapper). There’s no denying that fat contributes heavily to the flavor experience, and clocking in with at least 80% fat, butter is definitely bringing the goods. A third camp say it’s a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. As chef Rosie Elliott says, the pairing is “the quintessential comfort food combo.”

I believe the scale is tipped somewhat to the bread side of the equation. Even a fantastic butter can’t save a flavorless commercial loaf that’s filled with cadre of chemical additives. Eating butter on its own isn’t likely to satisfy (although if you ask my kitten, she will disagree – and the tooth marks on the stick of butter I foolishly left on the counter yesterday are the evidence). However, a great bread can stand on its own, needing nothing to be delicious. Combining the two, of course, and it’s magical.

Category: Antipasto

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7 Comments

  • janecooksamiracle  on  January 17, 2024

    Coincidence ! I ate bread and butter for breakfast. Baguette!
    First time in decades ?

  • hillsboroks  on  January 17, 2024

    The black lab/setter mix dog we had years ago would agree with your kitten that it is all about the butter, any butter! One time he saw my husband standing beside the kitchen counter where a cube of butter was sitting on a plate. The dog sauntered over to my husband, jumped up with his paws wrapped around my husband’s waist wagging his tail like he just wanted a bit of a back scratch. My husband obliged and kept looking at me and talking to me while he rubbed the dog. In just a few seconds the dog leaned a bit to the side and grabbed the whole cube of butter and was gone out thru the doggy door! All I could do was laugh at how audacious that dog was and how he really put one over on my husband.

  • Fyretigger  on  January 17, 2024

    After 5000 plus years of civilization, a single bite of warm bread and butter tells you that you have food to eat, sufficient security to grow grain and raise livestock, and a hearth to keep you warm (the bread was baked somewhere). While life can always be better, a single bite of warm bread and butter instantly tells you things are pretty good. I think it’s in our DNA at this point.

  • Rinshin  on  January 18, 2024

    Depends on where you are from. Me, a hot bowl of Japanese steamed rice, pat of butter on top with little drizzle of soy sauce. Sister-in-law, bowl of hot rice with topping of any kimchi and my father’s wife, homemade pulled noodle with black vinegar and chili. My husband, well grilled hamburger always elicits smiles.

  • Indio32  on  January 18, 2024

    Hot buttered TOAST!

  • gamulholland  on  January 18, 2024

    Our pet parakeet would agree. He loves nibbling when we have bread & butter…especially the butter.

  • bittrette  on  January 19, 2024

    A few years ago the New York Times had a story on the delights of a kaiser roll and butter. The thoughts of a few readers, including me, turned to “Bontsha the Silent,” an 1894 story by the Yiddish writer Isaac Leib Peretz, a retelling of a Yiddish folktale. It tells of a poor porter who lives a life of pure uncomplaining suffering on earth but who is welcomed into paradise as a great saint. When he is given the choice of all the treasures of paradise, he asks only for a hot roll with fresh butter, every day for breakfast.
    For Peretz that was not the end of the story, but I digress. You can read the story here:
    https://www.brooklyn.net/classes/y371/texts_371/bontsha_the_silent.html

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