More seasonal stuff

I may go to some of my family for Christmas, but that doesn't mean I'm completely off the culinary hook. Every year now - for the past seven years, I think - we've set off on Christmas morning with a car loaded with presents, weekend cases, and food - the Christmas cake, a pudding, a jar of home-made cranberry sauce, and Brandy Butter. I think if I turned up without the last item I might be shown the door.

Anyway, that's what I've been making here. It's safely in the fridge in its stone (stone? really?) jar. On the worktop you can see the brandy, the butter paper, the ancient hand-mixer and the cookery book where I first found the recipe more years ago than I care to remember. The page of newspaper marking the place is dated March 1984 (there's a pancake recipe on it), so I've clearly been making it since before then. The pages are brown with age and spattered with random dots of butter from the beating in the bowl.

The cookery book itself is an oddity. It was in the library of Dean George Douglas, who used to preside over the Cathedral of The Isles and who was really responsible for my church life. When he died (and I sang at his requiem and was converted on the spot) my friend Alastair had the clearing of his possessions to do, and gave me this book. It was old then - the author remarks that he hasn't seen this or that in English shops since the war, and says that the only reason anyone would offer guests sorrel to eat was to show acquaintance with Abroad. But there are one or two helpful recipes therein, and one of them is for Brandy Butter.

Hint: equal quantities of butter, sugar (in ounces) and brandy (in tablespoons).