Kerry Gold and other high-end butters

[patrickamory]

Just got another block of unsalted Echiré and felt moved to post about it. I think it is the ne plus ultra of butters. Rich and soft on the tongue even out of the fridge, with a slight tang.

 

Perfect smeared on some black Finnish ruis bread.

[MellaMella]

In Europe it's more common to add live culture to butter, which gives it a lot more flavor. Kerrygold does; I've read that Plugra does not. The % butterfat a product must contain to be labeled 'butter' is also higher, so cheap supermarket butter in the UK, Ireland and Germany, at least, has at least 84% (and some have 86%) while in the US only 80% is required.

 

There may be more to it - from the color it looks like it might not come from feed-lot cows. I assume (but don't know this) that the cows get more pasture feeding than ours tend to, becuase when I find local pasture-grazed butters they tend to look, taste and behave more like Kerrygold.

[btbyrd]

There may be more to it - from the color it looks like it might not come from feed-lot cows. I assume (but don't know this) that the cows get more pasture feeding than ours tend to, becuase when I find local pasture-grazed butters they tend to look, taste and behave more like Kerrygold.

 

They make a big deal about their product coming from pastured cows. On every package I've bought, it says "Milk from grass-fed cows." Butter from pastured dairy cows has a higher concentration of vitamin A, which makes it take on a richer yellow color. Presumably that's where the "gold" in Kerrygold comes from. From what I understand, pastured beef is the default in Europe and Australia/NZ, but I'm not sure how that applies to dairy cows. Plugra, for instance, doesn't source milk from grass-fed cows. I'll add that the one time I purchased Horizon organic butter, it was the most pallid, ghastly butter I've ever seen. It almost looked like shortening. I pretty much buy Kerrygold exclusively, unless I come across another pastured brand (which I seldom do).

Edited October 19, 2014 by btbyrd (log)

[naguere]

^^^

Where are you based? I'm in the UK and I prefer any number of the local butters I can get, often there's a lot of organic or from speciality cows/sheep/goats. In the supermarket I tend to go for Yeo Valley butter because it's organic and I like the taste. Same for Rachels. Actually I'd go for supermarket own brand organic or "finest" butter over kerrygold too. This is also because I'd prefer unsalted over salted butter when buying. When it comes to actually eating it I do tend to salt it if just having with bread, but I like to try it unsalted to check the flavour.

Interestingly enough my Mum looks down most of all on butters such as Lurpak and Anchor, because they're not British. This comes from the fact that she grew up with local butter, milk and cream from the farm that her father and brother worked on, and she doesn't like the idea of not supporting British farmers when it comes to dairy and meat.

I live in Cheltenham UK and buy my butter from Tesco's, the only one for me is Rodda's Classic Churned

Cornish Butter. It is seems to be firmer than other stuff and has an incomparable taste.

[Bill Klapp]

I am with andiesenji on this one.  A friend here imports oysters, smoked salmon, other seafood, foie gras and butter into Italy for its top chefs.  I have tasted through the butters mentioned above in this thread and many more, as well as most of France's top butters, and I am convinced that the best butter on earth is made in Isigny Sainte-Mere in lower Normandy, whether sweet or demi-sel.  We buy it in bulk in a 5-kilo basket called a bourriche, then cut it up and freeze it.  It will last for a year (or longer...maybe two!) frozen with virtually no loss in quality.  Also, whether sweet or salted, it can be kept at room temperature (except in summer sans air conditioning, I suppose) without worrying about rancidity.  You may not find it in bulk in the U.S., but Beurre d' Isigny is pretty readily available in gourmet stores in major metro areas.  I could find it in Raleigh, NC, for example.  As to rancidity, U.S. commercial butters seem particularly subject to it, to a degree that homemade farm butters are not.  I would never leave Land O' Lakes sitting out in the kitchen in a butter dish for days.  It would be interesting to know why.

 

My typical breakfast here is toast made from a local bread that resembles nothing so much as South Jersey Italian bread, that cracker-crisp-crust, moist, doughy interior suitable for rolling into balls bread, also of hoagie and cheesesteak roll fame, slathered with Isigny butter, either demi-sel or topped with a little fresh-ground Himalayan pink salt if sweet, and then topped with first-quality Parma or San Daniele prosciutto.  Add a caffe latte made with farm-fresh raw milk, and Alto-Adige yogurt or maybe a Star Ruby grapefruit from South Africa in season, and there is no such thing as a bad day here!  All of that said, the butter may well be the most important item in that breakfast lineup...

Edited October 19, 2014 by Bill Klapp (log)