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This week, I talk about that magical ingredient, butter–salted vs. unsalted, various types, when to use a lot, when to use a little….

Butter is one of those great ingredients that makes a lot of things taste sensational, but a lot of people are unreasonably afraid of it as well. Yes, restaurants are often guilty of applying it gratuitously, for a quick-and-easy taste sensation, but at home, you can use it judiciously, and you shouldn’t skip it just because it seems like it might be bad for you.

To convince you that maybe butter won’t kill you, check out Jennifer McLagan’s excellent cookbook Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient. There’s a whole chapter devoted to butter. Granted, it’s titled “Butter: Worth It,” so, yes, it implies it might be a bit of a guilty pleasure. But it also has a sensible attitude toward the use of it. I of course don’t recommend cooking everything in this book at once, but you’ll learn a lot.