Roasted Butter. on a spit. before a fire!

Years ago I was intrigued by roasting butter on a spit. An Irish woman in Ellis's 1750 book made it many times over Christmas "to accommodate a Friend with a Slice or two, as we do Cakes or minced Pies here." Hannah Glasse had it roast over oysters, then when done "lay it on your oysters." After some recipes is a descripton of wooden spits, Ivan Day's attempt to roast butter (which convinced me not to try it), and upcoming zoom talks: Fun foods (CHoW), Spam, Expat Cookbooks, Ceramic ice pails and ice cream by Ivan Day, Dinner with Dumas (Three Musketeers), Why bees change their minds, and more.

Gervase Markham, 1633
To roast a pound of Butter curiously and well, you shall take a pound of sweete Butter and beat it stiffe with Sugar, and the yolks of Egges; then clap it roundwise about a spit, and lay it before a soft fire, and presently dredge it with the dredging before appointed for the Pigge; then as it warmeth or melteth,so apply it with dredging till the Butter be overcome and no more will melt to fall from it, then roast it browne, and so draw it, and serve it out, the dish being as neatly trimmed with Sugar as may be.
The Country Contentments or, the Husbandmans Recreations by Gervase Markham, 1633

William Ellis, 1750
To roast a Pound of Butter or more the Irish Way. TAKE a Pound of Butter, season it well with Salt, and put it on a wooden Spit; place it at a good Distance from the Fire, let it turn round, and as the Butter moistens or begins to drip, drudge it well with fine Oatmeal, continuing so to do till there is any Moisture ready to drip, then baste it, and it will soon be enough. A certain Irish Woman told me this eats very nicely, in so much that she has done on a Christmas Eve twentyseven different Pounds so, at a Farmer's House in her Country, where it has been kept all the Holidays, to accommodate a Friend with a Slice or two, as we do Cakes or minced Pies here.
The Country Housewife's Family Companion. William Ellis, 1750

Hannah Glasse, 1796
To roast a Pound of Butter. LAY it in salt and water two or three hours, then spit it and rub it all over with crumbs of bread, with a little grated nutmeg, lay it to the fire, and, as it roasts, baste it with the yolks of two eggs and then with crumbs of bread all the time it is roasting; but have ready a pint of oysters stewed in their own liquor, and lay in the dish under the butter; when the bread has soaked up all the butter, brown the outside, and lay it on your oysters. Your fire must be very slow.
Hannah Glasse. The Art of Cookery. London: 1796

Cassel's, 1873
How to Roast a Pound of Butter. We find this culinary folly of the last century in the third edition of "The Art of Cookery, by a Lady, 1748:"
Lay it (the butter) in salt and water two or three hours; then spit it, and rub it all over with crumbs of bread, with a little grated nutmeg; lay it to the fire, and, as it roasts, baste it with the yolks of two eggs, and then with crumbs of bread, all the time it is roasting; but have ready a pint of oysters, stewed in their own liquor, and lay it in the dish under the butter; when the bread has soaked up all the butter, brown the outside, and lay it on your oysters. Your fire must be very slow." We need scarcely add that this recipe is not given for imitation, but to show why cookery books in former times were blamed for their extravagance and wasteful instructions. Such books were formerly made up from their predecessors by persons little acquainted with the subject. Thus, in a cookery-book printed some twenty years ago, copied from a much older work, the cook is instructed to put half-a-pint of Madeira wine in a strawberry pie!
Cassell’s Household Guide v.3 1873

P.L. Jacob, 1876
… as if the object of cookery was to disguise food and deceive epicures, Taillevent facetiously gives us a receipt for making fried or roast butter and for cooking eggs on the spit. The roasts were as numerous as the stews. A treatise of the fourteenth century names about thirty…
Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages… P. L. Jacob, London: 1876

Wooden spit, 1899
Roasting of the Paschal Lamb-- …A spit made of the wood of the pomegranate-tree should be taken… The paschal sacrifice must not be roasted on an iron roasting spit, nor on a gridiron. … Why not use the wood of a date-tree? On account of the bark, which contains water, and when heated the water thereof will be the means of cooking part of the lamb, and this must not take place. Our Mishna is not in conformity with the opinion of R. Jehudah, who said that, as a wooden spit is not burnt while the lamb is being roasted, so also an iron spit will not become sufficiently heated to cook the flesh adjoining it. He was told, however, that while a wooden spit only becomes heated locally, an iron spit when partially heated becomes so throughout.
New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud. Michael L. Rodkinson, Boston: 1899

Ivan Day’s blog post from 2014 on roasted butter with pictures HERE


UPCOMING TALKS

Jan 5 Mon 7-8:15 Stirring Up History: The Cookbooks That Shaped America’s Kitchen. Dr. Leslie Goddard. Livingston Public Library (NJ) HERE

Jan 6 Tue 6 The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution. Joyce E. Chaplin. The American Philosophical Society HERE

Jan 7 Wed 2 [7pm UK] What the books don't tell you and why bees change their minds. Clare Densley, Martin Hahn. Cambridgeshire Beekeepers. HERE

Jan 7 Wed 8 The Five Misconceptions about SPAM (the Food). Dr Kelly A. Spring. CHEW Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin HERE TAPE may be HERE

Jan 10 Sat 10:30-11:15 AM Eggs in Croquets. Gunston Hall HERE

Jan 11 Sun 2 Fun Foods: The Unknown, Unexpected, and Long Forgotten. “breakfast table cereals and their entrance into the fun foods kingdom; and the transition of candy from medicines to fun foods and back again. Given the season, we’ll take a dip into fun foods for cold weather, such as old-time hot sodas and cold syrup.” Susan Benjamin. Culinary Historians of Washington DC CHoW HERE

Jan 12 Mon 7 10 Most Influential American Cookbooks. Dr. Leslie Goddard. Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library HERE

Jan 13 Tue 5-6:15 Industrializing Olfaction: How Soapmakers Changed the Urban American Smellscape in the Late 19th Century & Early 20th Century. Shiqi Wang. Massachusetts Historical Society HERE

Jan 15 Thu 12:30 Greek Food - Joint Session. Food waste in Greek history and Culture. Nafsika Papacharalampous. Konstantina Balafouti. The first Greek cookbook: recipes about national identity and the desire for the West. Institute of Historical Research. IHR HERE TAPE maybe HERE

Jan 15 Thu 7 Why We Need Oaks and How to Save Them. Doug Tallamy. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies HERE

Jan 15 Thur 7:30 My search for Ukrainian-Canadian cookbooks. Joyce Sirski-Howell. Culinary Historians of Canada $17.31 HERE

Jan 18 Sun 5 Expat Cookbooks: Expressions of Identity and Community While Living Abroad. Daniel Freidus. CHEW Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin HERE TAPE may be HERE

Jan 20 Tue 5-6:30am Bucket Mill in Finzean, Scotland “getting the machinery working again, developing skills training, and working towards producing historic turned buckets once again…” Owen Bushell. North UK Mills Group. Heritage Network HERE

Jan 21 Wed 1 [6pm UK] Ceramic ice pails and the frozen delights they once held. Ivan Day. Museum of Royal Worcester HERE TAPE maybe HERE

Jan 22 Thur 6:30 Brewing in New Hampshire: An Informal History of Beer in the Granite State Glenn Knoblock. Meredith Public Library HERE

Jan 22 Thur 7 Dinner with Dumas: The Gourmand Author of The Three Musketeers. Michon Boston. HFSDV HERE TAPE HERE

Jan 29 Thur 12:30 Levant Food - Joint Session. Lina Saad. Sawda Nayeh: The Raw Truth of Lebanese Heritage. Stefan Williamson - Eating Ashure on Ashura: Gastro-Sectarianisation in Contemporary Turkey. Institute of Historical Research. IHR HERE TAPE maybe HERE

CALENDAR OF VIRTUAL FOOD HISTORY TALKS HERE

©2026 Patricia Bixler Reber
Researching Food History HOME






I have no say over the choice of the following ads ("you might like" links), which vary, with this email service. STRONGLY DISAGREE with some of them.