Which butter is better?

C

CookieMonster

Senior Member
Joined
29 Jun 2019
Local time
4:42 PM
Messages
550
Location
USA/PA
[Mod.Edit: posts moved to form new topic (MG)]

European butters are oft touted because the high end (?) of them contain less water aka "more butter fat"

Kerry Gold is widely available in USA.
every single time I've purchased it - it was 'spoiled' - off taste - obviously not store/handled "right" as to temperatures, etc.

from a dude who has seriously done a lot of German / European Fruehstuecks with wiecheier /broetchen / marmalade . . .
bad butter just don't git it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
CookieMonster said:
European butters are oft touted because the high end (?) of them contain less water aka "more butter fat"

Kerry Gold is widely available in USA.
every single time I've purchased it - it was 'spoiled' - off taste - obviously not store/handled "right" as to temperatures, etc.

from a dude who has seriously done a lot of German / European Fruehstuecks with wiecheier /broetchen / marmalade . . .
bad butter just don't git it.
Click to expand...
You left out the word "some". Kerry Gold has in my opinion been regarded as cheap shxte in the UK for most of my life. I have never eaten a
British sweet or salty butter I like except for Jersey Butter

1606040949210.png

1606040968195.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Burt Blank said:
For every day salted butter when we lived in the UK Lurpak crowned best butter in the world at Championship Cheese Contest
Click to expand...
I use Finnish Valio butter which has the same ranking. Artturi Iivari Virtanen won a Noble Prize in 1945 for his scientific work with silage/cattle feed, which improved milk production during winter. In addition, he noticed that if the pH level of butter was lifted towards neutral with buffered salts, the butter didn't rancidify during storage. That gave Finnish butter a big advantage in the butter market for years - e.g. in import to the UK, until Virtanen sold his patent to Swedes. Nowadays additional salts aren't needed, as the production of butter is more hygienic.

In my opinion, most butters in travel destinations have a "fishy" or watery aftertaste or other strange hues. Finnish butter is always silky, creamy and tasty :D. I'm biased, of course - and my favorite butter is rather salty which defines the taste. I don't use unsalted butter even in frying, although it might prevent meat bits or fish fillets from losing too much of their natural fluids.
 
Last edited:
For me there is a distinct color and flavor difference between summer grass fed cows and winter inside fed cows butter. Winter inside fed Lurpak look insipid and taste bland compared to the rich yellow summer Lurpak.
This butter does not need salt to enhance it's wonderful flavor. I would eat it with everything when I was in the UK. I would die for a plate of Jersey Royal new potatoes tossed with a big nob of
1606046827658.png
 
I've tried all the butters that are supposed to be better than "mercan" butter. I buy Land-o-Lakes butter. It is good butter. It doesn't travel across any oceans to get here. I don't pay a bunch of money just to say, "Hey, it's European." I buy unsalted butter, because I I have salt in my pantry, if I need it.

IMO, the best dairy products are the one's that come from as close to home as possible. If it has to spend two weeks on a container ship to get to the same country I am in, and I'm expected to pay more for it, I'm out.

Hey, if I lived in Europe, I'd buy European butter, for the same reason -- it comes from close to where I live and cook.

CD
 
Burt Blank said:
For me there is a distinct color and flavor difference between summer grass fed cows and winter inside fed cows butter. Winter inside fed Lurpak look insipid and taste bland compared to the rich yellow summer Lurpak.
This butter does not need salt to enhance it's wonderful flavor. I would eat it with everything when I was in the UK. I would die for a plate of Jersey Royal new potatoes tossed with a big nob of View attachment 50993
Click to expand...

I was going to mention this, the best butter there is imho and available at my local supermarket. I always buy this or lurpak.
 
I'm not used to use salted butter, in fact it's not used in my country anyway, if I need to salt it a little bit then I add a pinch of salt and that's fine.
Northern Italy has always been a great producer and consumer of butter. Far from me to be an expert but from what I know the quality is measured by the centrifuge of butter or something like that.
Anyway, these are the two types of butter I use, they do not release that annoying water - at least for me - they are creamy and consistent and perfect to spread on hot bread to eat like this.
I've also tried Lurpak butter a few times and I have to say it's exceptional.

51000


51001
 
MypinchofItaly said:
I'm not used to use salted butter, in fact it's not used in my country anyway, if I need to salt it a little bit then I add a pinch of salt and that's fine.
Northern Italy has always been a great producer and consumer of butter. Far from me to be an expert but from what I know the quality is measured by the centrifuge of butter or something like that.
Click to expand...

The best butter, and dairy in general in the US seems to also come from the Northern regions. Texas is NOT known for good dairy products. I'm sure climate is the reason.

I have also never seen a reason for salted butter. I can add salt -- I can't remove it.

CD
 
caseydog said:
The best butter, and dairy in general in the US seems to also come from the Northern regions. Texas is NOT known for good dairy products. I'm sure climate is the reason.

I have also never seen a reason for salted butter. I can add salt -- I can't remove it.

CD
Click to expand...

I don't know, maybe is a matter of climate. I would say the same thing for Southern Italy, but then I think about their dairy tradition and my theory melts like......butter. Not salted though :laugh:
 
There are three types of butter here, Salted, Unsalted and Sweet Cream. I prefer Sweet Cream Butter.

In the USA, Wisconsin is historically known as the Dairy State. But Land O' Lakes Butter originated in Minnesota and Challenge Butter originated in Los Angeles, California. Go figure.

Foreign Butters are available in the US.

FYI: US Private Label Butters outsell both Land O' Lakes and Challenge Butters dramatically.
 
Butter...I buy whatever I feel like buying. In my local Kroger, where I'm doing most of my shopping these days, my choices are generic supermarket butter, Kerrygold, Plugrá (which is from the US, despite its fancy name), Land-O-Lakes, President (French), and Private Selection French butter (which is a French product, but sold under a US name - Kroger owns Private Selection). Varieties are salted, unsalted, and sweet cream.

If I go a little further afield, I can get locally produced butter, made from as close as less than 25 miles from my house, and big fat rolls of Amish butter, made no further than a few hours from here.

I rarely buy salted butter, even if a recipe says to use salted butter, because the salt amounts from one brand to the other can differ. That's probably me just being nutty, as I doubt, once I get a recipe together, I can really taste the difference between the pinch of salt that was in these two tablespoons of butter versus the pinch-and-two grains that was in some other brand's butter.

I never buy supermarket butter, I stopped that a long time ago, although I will say this: as far as working with it, meaning the actual getting it from the pack and onto a knife and wherever it's finally going, I do prefer the texture of cheap butter. The good stuff is sticky and never wants to come out of the pack, then once it's on the knife, doesn't want to let go!

Right now I have Kerrygold (both stick and block), Plugrá (block), and Private Selection French (block), which is salted and was bought by mistake.
 
TastyReuben said:
If I go a little further afield, I can get locally produced butter, made from as close as less than 25 miles from my house, and big fat rolls of Amish butter, made no further than a few hours from here.
Click to expand...

I wish I could do that. Would I be able to tell the difference? I don't know. :scratchhead:

CD
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom