All About Butter

[MobyP]

I've been baking semi-seriously for a couple of years now, and it only recently occured to me that other than on a rather superficial level (salted/unsalted, 82/83% fat etc) I haven't really thought about the differences between butters.

So what are the major differences? What does it mean to have a higher water, or fat content? What do the professional pastry chefs in the UK use? Is it different in the US? (I remember there was an article in the dGullet which mentioned plugra - which I've never seen.) What's available if you're willing to go a bit further? Which are the larger brands that people find acceptable? And the smaller brands that no one knows about?

Are there any pastry chefs in the UK that can help us out?

[helenjp]

From Japan, the land of cheap butters of uncertain age...

I suspect that a higher water content makes for a tougher pastry, but never sure whether it was the cheap butter, or some other variable.

Other butters...not sure it's so relevant to baking, but I used to be able to buy cultured butter. I REALLY liked it -- none of the faintly rancid taste that I detect in butter bought fresh in butter-eating countries. Hence, my favorite for butter-finished sauces or with potatoes, etc.

Sorry, can't help with brands!

There is a definite difference in taste and appeareance between butters from grain-fed and grass-fed cattle. I used to notice when the cattle went from pasture grass to hay and turnips -- you could taste the turnip in the milk and butter! On the other hand, grain-fed butter tastes too bland for me -- while I know Scandinavian women who would never bake Christmas cookies with anything but the palest winter-fed butter. In any case, many farmers feed their cattle things that give the butter a yellower color.

[CRUZMISL]

I only use grocery store butter if I have to. I really prefer Plugra (domestic butter but made in the european fashion) or imported butter from Europe. They have much more fat content and therefore taste better. PLugra is a staple in my house.

Joe

[artisanbaker]

it's not just the fat content. it's also the maturation of the cream which promotes diecetyl production. (flavor agent in butter) just like bread, shortcuts lead to lesser quality.

[Bond Girl]

There was a thread that I started a while back about Butter. Supposedly, the butter you get depends on what the cow had been eating, so butter produced in the summer has a slightly more herbal taste than butter prooduced in the winter when the cows are feediing on dry stock. Most US butter has a fat content of approximately 80%, whereas french butter taste richer and better because it has a higher butter fat content. I haven't try English butter, but I think the Irish Kerry Gold actually came pretty close to the french variety. From there, you can get into a whole world of Artisanal butter. I prefer Isigny and Kerry Gold for spreading on bread and Plugra for baking. If you really want to splurge, the Vermont Butter (86% butter fat content) is good all around, but really expensive. This is something you will need to experiement yourself because what I discovered over the summer, when I was on my whole butter tasting experiement, was that what taste good doesn't necessarily translate well to baking or cooking. At the end of the day, it's a matter of personal taste. So, have fun and let us know what you find.

[artisanbaker]

if you're in the UK then look for echire from france.

[MobyP]

Thanks, everyone. (And 'echire' - thanks arty)

I recently brought half a pound of interesting looking butter back from france and used it last night in a tarte tatin - the richness was unbelievable.

The problems here are, I imagine, the problems everywhere. The supermarkets all stock the same 'French' brands, which tend to be decent but lowest common denominator, and of course their own brands, which are all (as we say over here) much of a muchness.

If anyone knows a great supply in the London area, obviously I'd pay vast amounts for the information.

[ggglimpopo]

Hi, I'm new on this forum, and this is my first posting...............

I live in south west France and have my Frenchman's family arriving from Paris for Christmas. We have decided on a "French" 24th and an "English" 25th. The 24th is the easy bit, doing Oysters/ Foie Gras as the entrée, followed by a civet and mash, followed by salads, cheese and tbd dessert. But I am having probs with the "English" part, the Christmas pudding and the mince pies - ie the suet, which I cannot find here. I have read that one can use grated, frozen butter, but that it changes the texture of the Christmas Pudding and is not a perfect substitute, and that the mincemeat does not keep for longer than a couple of days if made in advance with butter. If I use butter would I go for salted/unsalted and would a poorer quality butter work better in this instance?

The brother-in-law frequently does one of those very French rants on how awful the food was when he went to the UK, and the mother-in-law has a deity like reputation in the kitchen. I need to impress!!

Any ideas?

Many thanks..........

[GG Mora]

...many farmers feed their cattle things that give the butter a yellower color.

Like grass. It's the carotene in grass that gives butter its (natural) yellow color. Spring/summer grasses have more carotene, so butter from grass-fed cows will be brighter yellow that time of year. Also, certain breeds – Jersey and Guernsey, for example – process the carotene differently, so their butter tends to be yellower still.

[jackal10]

Hi, I'm new on this forum, and this is my first posting...............

I live in south west France and have my Frenchman's family arriving from Paris for Christmas. We have decided on a "French" 24th and an "English" 25th. The 24th is the easy bit, doing Oysters/ Foie Gras as the entrée, followed by a civet and mash, followed by salads, cheese and tbd dessert. But I am having probs with the "English" part, the Christmas pudding and the mince pies - ie the suet, which I cannot find here. I have read that one can use grated, frozen butter, but that it changes the texture of the Christmas Pudding and is not a perfect substitute, and that the mincemeat does not keep for longer than a couple of days if made in advance with butter. If I use butter would I go for salted/unsalted and would a poorer quality butter work better in this instance?

The brother-in-law frequently does one of those very French rants on how awful the food was when he went to the UK, and the mother-in-law has a deity like reputation in the kitchen. I need to impress!!

Any ideas?

Many thanks..........

Welcome to egullet!

Making Christmas Pudding and Mince Pies were covered in the eGCI unit on Autumn and Festive Preserves.

Suet is the fat from around beef kidneys, chopped. You should be able to get more than enough from a good butcher.

You can use butter, but it is not the same for many reasons:

- flavour

- hardness of the fat, and the mouth feel it gives

- water content.

There is a vegatrian suet (shudder) made from hydrogenated palm oil.

[Jaymes]

I live in south west France and have my Frenchman's family arriving from Paris for Christmas...and the mother-in-law has a deity like reputation in the kitchen.

Any ideas?

I have an idea that I'm tres glad I'm not you!

And I also have an idea that if I were you, I'd say something like, "I know I can't possibly match Mama in the kitchen, so let's all go out."

[ggglimpopo]

No worries now that I've found out all about suet...which incidentally is not in my Larousse Gastronomique

Back on the subject of butter, here we can buy excellent farm butter from local farms at the markets, which is odd as most of the butter in France comes from Normandy and Brittany, hundreds of kilometres away. I understand that demi -sel and doux are made quite differently and it is not just the addition of salt that makes the difference, which is why the salted butter behaves differently in cooking - or so the woman at the market tells me.

[Cusina]

I'm curious about european style butters. This is the brand available to meorganic valley, unfortunately Pleugra just isn't in our stores.

They have both a traditional unsalted and a european style "enzyme treated" butter. I'm wondering what enzyme treated means and what the difference will be, flavorwise in my baked goods if I use the european style butter. I would have to hunt down the european style, is it worth the effort?

[rickster]

I've made Christmas Pudding pretty successfully using butter instead of suet. I'm about to try this winter the ECGI mincemeat recipe with butter instead of suet.

Regarding enzymatic treatment, I'd suspect this is what is also called "cultured" butter which has a slightly different taste with sour overtones than regular sweet butter. I'd only try it in a recipe where the butter taste is critical and not masked by other flavors, like a croissant