better egg butter!

[kareina]

I have loved egg butter ever since the first time I tried it, on a visit to Finland, where it is traditionally served with Karelian Pasties. I have made it every so often, but while I love the taste, the fact that the bits of egg tend to fall out was always a bit annoying. This past weekend one of our local Finns brought Karelian Pasties to the Frostheim potluck. However, her egg butter was extra yummy and creamy, and didn't have the habit of dropping bits of egg like mine does. I asked, and it turns out that she adds a bit of cottage cheese to hers, and it is amazing the difference.

She had no idea what proportions she uses, since she just add "enough" of each, so I just tried it, using three eggs, a clump of butter about the size of one egg, and a couple of spoons of cottage cheese about the size of one egg (so about 60% egg, 20% butter, and 20% cottage cheese), and it came out wonderful! Nice and creamy, neither too buttery, nor too cheesey, nor too eggy, and it holds together well. I will certainly make it this way again. Wish I had heard of this before my birthday, when I frosted the smörsgåstårta with egg butter...

Comments

[madbaker]

What is the egg butter of which you speak? Intriguing.

[kareina]

A common topping in Finland, and to a lesser extent Scandinavia for other foods or as a sandwich spread. It is the traditional thing to serve on Karalian pasties (which one can also buy in the freezer section of IKEA here, but they aren't as good as homemade, of course). The simple way is to just mix chopped hard boiled eggs with butter, and that is good, or one can add cottage cheese, and that is better. A brief bit of reading on line indicates that adding the cottage cheese thing is more Estonian, while just hard-boiled eggs and butter is more Finnish.

As someone who hates vinegar (and thus, by extension, commercial mayonnaise), I never understood the appeal of "egg salad" sandwiches. Now I put egg butter on my sandwichs and love it.

[frualeydis]

I didn't know egg butter was a Finnish thing, it's traditional in the area where I spent most of my childhood too, especially for Easter - and my coven always have it for Spring Equinox.


/Eva

[kareina]

Where did you spend most of your childhood? Is your egg butter just eggs and butter, or do you add anything else?

[frualeydis]

Just egg and butter (and salt to taste).

Around Trollhättan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trollh%C3%A4ttan

/Eva