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Butter- French or.....?

Naftal

By Naftal
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Naftal

Naftal

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Posted

    I learned that French butter is considered to be the best. But, when I discuss this with others they have different opinions.  

    What do you think?

"As life's pleasures go, food is second only to sex.Except for salami and eggs...Now that's better than sex, but only if the salami is thickly sliced"--Alan King (1927-2004)

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Anna N

Anna N

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Depends. Best for what?

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

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I've been to France but I'm not sure I've ever tried French butter.  I'd be inclined to give French butter the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong.

 

Now, in contrast, English cream was wonderful.

 

And as I recall French and English yogurt was not so good.

 

Unfortunately I am butter agnostic.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Naftal

Naftal

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Depends. Best for what?

Edited by Naftal (log)

"As life's pleasures go, food is second only to sex.Except for salami and eggs...Now that's better than sex, but only if the salami is thickly sliced"--Alan King (1927-2004)

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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Posted (edited)

Experts? That's funny!!!  :laugh:

 

This is silly!!!!

The best butter is the butter YOU like best!!!!

 

 

Former dairy farmer here.

The flavor of butter varies with the breed of cattle and the forage.....it varies almost day to day!

And yes, we did have some of those nice French Normandy cattle when we were dairying.

 

Packaged butter lacks the subtle and unique flavors of real butter.

 

 

Jersey butter or Dexter butter can be amazingly wonderful!

 

Just depends......

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)
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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Naftal

Naftal

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Experts? That's funny!!!  :laugh:

 

This is silly!!!!

The best butter is the butter YOU like best!!!!

 

 

Former dairy farmer here.

The flavor of butter varies with the breed of cattle and the forage.....it varies almost day to day!

And yes, we did have some of those nice French Normandy cattle when we were dairying.

 

Packaged butter lacks the subtle and unique flavors of real butter.

 

 

Jersey butter or Dexter butter can be amazingly wonderful!

 

Just depends......

"As life's pleasures go, food is second only to sex.Except for salami and eggs...Now that's better than sex, but only if the salami is thickly sliced"--Alan King (1927-2004)

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Naftal

Naftal

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French yauort is generally bad, some exceptions of course. I use to love Michel et Augustin...it's very hard to find dense Greek yogurts. I had good yogurts in the UK.

I'm not a butter fanatic, I don't have the habit of spreading bread on butter. But definitely French butter taste better to me than the average American butter, which to me doesn't have a lot of personality. Also it's seem to me in the States good butters are so much more expensive and I am more concerned I have the minimum requirements important for me: grass fed for example. So if I'm buying a lot of butter for baking I'm not going to spend a fortune on French butter. I do think I was eating more butter while living in France and lost interest here.

"As life's pleasures go, food is second only to sex.Except for salami and eggs...Now that's better than sex, but only if the salami is thickly sliced"--Alan King (1927-2004)

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Franci

Franci

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And I found this if you are interested http://forums.egullet.org/topic/107572-best-butter-widely-available/?p=1466694

Meanwhile I'm losing my mind tonight trying to remember this very fancy butter I wanted to try and eventually didn't manage

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Naftal

Naftal

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French butter, like much European butter, is typically cultured and unsalted. This has a totally different flavour before you start considering the type of cow and what it ate.

"As life's pleasures go, food is second only to sex.Except for salami and eggs...Now that's better than sex, but only if the salami is thickly sliced"--Alan King (1927-2004)

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CatPoet

CatPoet

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I use Finnish butter , well it is  the best lactose free one I can get hold of  but the Swedish lactose free  is great in cakes but not savouries, it add a toffee taste to everything.   

 

I have tried butter from  England, Scotland,  Denmark, Ireland when I  was in the UK and well the  English one was weird, it smelled funny it must be the brand , the Scottish was oki, the Danish was the best for cakes and  the one from Ireland was amazing but only with savoury stuff.

 

And in the Netherlands  I tried,  Dutch,  German,  Belgian and cultured French butter.  Dutch is oki,  it just butter,  the German well we got Alpine butter which was amazing just to have on a slab of bread , the flavour was stunning  and then low land which was just butter  and the Belgian was rich and the French well odd taste.

 

And I have  had Russian butter and it had the texture of lard and tasted weird, most have gotten a crap brand.

Cheese is you friend, Cheese will take care of you, Cheese will never betray you, But blue mold will kill me.

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Lisa Shock

Lisa Shock

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I have made butter from two different cow breeds, Jersey and Holstein, and the Jersey was far better. I've had some local artisan butters, and they are good, too. I like French butter, but, I have only had commercial types -it's definitely better than average US supermarket butter. Also, I cannot recall which brand, but one french butter manufacturer sells butter in thin sheets sized to be the beurrage in laminated doughs. I wish there were an American manufacturer of such a product...

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jmacnaughtan

jmacnaughtan

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Posted (edited)

In France, there are stricter definitions of what you can sell as butter, for example it has to have around 82% fat.

 

The range of butter available here is fantastic, the best I've had is the unpasteurized you get at Monoprix...  Also, Breton butter with salt crystals is pretty damn good too.

 

ETA: a useful tip- avoid any artisanal, small-farmer butter that is sold in the same cabinet as cheese.  Butter picks up odours incredibly easily.

Edited by jmacnaughtan (log)
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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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In France, there are stricter definitions of what you can sell as butter, for example it has to have around 82% fat.

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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CatPoet

CatPoet

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Jmacnaughtan  standard Swedish butter cost around    3 .21 Euro for 500 gram  how ever we dont have a selection, it sort of   3 or 4 companies doing the same thing.  How ever  there is one place that does do artisan butter and it smells  rancid.. yeah, rancid  butter for  6 euros...

Cheese is you friend, Cheese will take care of you, Cheese will never betray you, But blue mold will kill me.

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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Interesting.  On closer reading, in France fat must be higher than 80%, water lower than 16% and dry matter lower than 2%.

 

I don't have much experience with US butter, but compared to the UK, it seems that French people are more willing to pay more for quality butter (up to around 3.20€/250g), so there's a greater selection on offer.  There are also protected appellations (Isigny, Deux Sèvres etc.) which make fairly unique, delicious butter.  If you can find/afford it, Beurre d'Echiré is excellent.

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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rotuts

rotuts

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Posted

you get what you pay for, more or less.

 

my local grocery store ( RocheBros.) has a good bakery, and some of their breads are very nice

 

for the last week they have been sampling various breads each day w Irish Butter, KerryGold

 

its very rich

 

One day they had a french sea-salt butter.  it was also rich, but way too salty.  I guess one day of that

 

broke the bank.

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CatPoet

CatPoet

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Just a question isnt it legal in the USA to  feed the cows hormones to increase milk production ?

 

What I have heard that lowers the quality of the milk.

Cheese is you friend, Cheese will take care of you, Cheese will never betray you, But blue mold will kill me.

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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My definition of real butter is sweet butter or cultured butter made from fresh raw cream from a pastured dairy cow, preferably a Jersey or Dexter.

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Naftal

Naftal

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Hello- Has anyone had any experience with Irish Butter?

"As life's pleasures go, food is second only to sex.Except for salami and eggs...Now that's better than sex, but only if the salami is thickly sliced"--Alan King (1927-2004)

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