Butter and I have a relationship. We cannot live without each other. Growing up in Britain it just belonged to the way of life. There was english butter, irish butter and also salted butter. Mum always got salt butter, so it was just normal as a kid to spread salt butter with sweet jam – I know it sounds strange, but I really did not notice the difference. Of course she did not cook with butter, I discovered that myself. And then I moved to Switzerland, land of the cows with all their products, including milk from which butter was made. Unfortunately butter in Switzerland is quite expensive, very expensive. I think we have to subsidise our farmers, but no-one was going to take away my butter. I really thought with a cow population of one million it would be almost free of charge.

This is my weekly supply of butter, 4×250 grammes=1 Kilo and as you can see it is marked in the store as being budget butter meaning 3 Swiss francs instead of perhaps 3.50 for other butter and this is Cooking butter but rubbish. It tastes exactly the same as the expensive table butter. I also cook with butter and mix it with my vegetables, I am just a butter person.

I did try to use less butter. A friend of mine said she always uses coconut fat. It has a neutral taste and does not burn so easily in the pan. I tried it and she was right: very neutral and safe to use for frying, but, it was not butter. And so life continues on the buttery side. Eat a cake not made with butter, perhaps margerine. It is not the same and spreading margerine on bread for breakfast is an insult to the jam I find.