[HN Gopher] The Difference Between European and American Butter
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The Difference Between European and American Butter
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 56 points
Date : 2023-04-28 19:25 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.epicurious.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.epicurious.com)
| prmoustache wrote:
| Fun fact that has little to do with butter. The Disney name is a
| kind of anglicised contraction of d'Isigny (literally: from
| Isigny) which was the origin of some of Roy and Walt Disney
| ancestors. That part of the family first moved to a small village
| in Lincolnshire called Norton Disney.
| anthonyshort wrote:
| I wonder if this difference is always why Americans don't put
| butter on sandwiches or consider just bread and butter a
| completely normal snack. If it doesn't taste like anything I can
| see why it wouldn't make sense.
| msrenee wrote:
| You also have to consider the fact that many households'
| standard loaf on hand is white sandwich bread. There will
| always be a place in my heart for the squishy comfort of a
| slice of our locally-made white bread, but the fanciest butter
| wouldn't make it a delicacy. Cheap store brand butter on a
| discount grocery store "baguette" is a much better snack. Then
| there's butter on saltines to go with a stew or pea soup. The
| taste of my childhood.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| We were also heavily conditioned through the 80s and early 90s
| to not use butter for health reasons. Many homes stopped using
| lard and animal fats entirely in favor of artificially flavored
| plant-based butter substitutes that melted poorly and tasted
| horribly.
| mywittyname wrote:
| I disagree with your premise.
|
| Butter is a key component of a quintessential American sandwich
| - the grilled cheese. Also, bread and butter is a midwestern
| dinner table staple, and buttered crackers are things I snack
| on, I put them out for dinner parties. Though, older people use
| margarine for "health reasons".
|
| If I want tanginess on a sandwich, I reach for mustard.
| gffrd wrote:
| American butter mostly tastes like salt and hardened milkfat
| ... which is pretty ho-hum.
|
| I suspect most Americans use butter for the salinity rather
| than the flavor.
|
| I further suspect that people butter their grilled cheese not
| for flavor, but for crisping the bread and building a barrier
| against the grease released by the melting cheese.
| rootw0rm wrote:
| A thin spread of mayo crisps up in the pan nicely too
| brianpan wrote:
| > Butter is a key component of a quintessential American
| sandwich - the grilled cheese.
|
| To YOU it is (and I agree with you). But people make it with
| oil or mayo as the fat. I doubt most people think of butter
| as a required ingredient.
| msrenee wrote:
| I didn't find out you could make a grilled cheese with mayo
| until a few years ago. My husband still won't even try it.
| In my region, I doubt that most people would be comfortable
| using mayo instead of butter.
| quercusa wrote:
| Coat the outside of your grilled cheese with half butter and
| half mayonnaise (mixed). It's spectacular.
| 226_ebro_treaty wrote:
| Kinda unrelated, but I recently found out Lidl's Irish Butter is
| made in Germany. Thought this would fall under EU Place of Origin
| Denomination Rules and thus not allowed.
| darreninthenet wrote:
| I don't think "Irish Butter" is protected under those rules
| like say "champagne" is
|
| The country of origin regulations would apply though - does it
| say very openly "made in Germany" on the packet? If not then it
| would likely fall foul of those rules.
| 226_ebro_treaty wrote:
| >does it say very openly "made in Germany" on the packet? If
| not then it would likely fall foul of those rules.
|
| No it doesn't. That's why I was disappointed when I found
| out!
| wiredfool wrote:
| German butter: no salt. Even Kerrygold sold in Germany, no salt.
|
| Irish butter: a little salt.
|
| French butter: more salt
|
| Bretagne butter: crunchy salt crystals.
| seszett wrote:
| Salt crystals, I only eat this kind of butter. But then I come
| from a department next to Brittany (and the local salt also has
| crystals and is cheaper than that from Brittany).
|
| Apparently it's really a local thing because I have never been
| able to find butter with salt crystals from anywhere else, to
| my dismay since I haven't lived there for a long time (but I'm
| close enough to France that I can still get my butter there).
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| While nowhere near France, there is a fabulous cultured
| butter with salt crystals found around the Seattle metro area
| that is made locally (Cherry Valley Dairy). They make amazing
| butter generally but that style is by far my favorite.
| vr46 wrote:
| The most important rule that they do not cover in this very nice
| article:
|
| The cooking butter goes in the fridge, the eating butter stays
| out of the fridge.
| quercusa wrote:
| There's a WSJ piece on this topic in today's edition. Experts
| say it's generally OK to leave butter out on the counter for
| three weeks.
|
| Who takes three weeks to go through a stick of butter???
| vr46 wrote:
| It wouldn't last that long here, for sure. The salt in the
| eating butter keeps it good. Cooking butter usually needs to
| be cold for baking and pastries.
|
| I have a Japanese Koshikawa butter knife (dubbed "I can't
| believe it's not Clutter" by a friend of mine) so even eating
| butter can be dealt with swiftly - similar to a butter
| curler.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| >The Battle Over Refrigerating Butter: 'Enough Is Enough'
|
| https://archive.ph/1jobX
| gffrd wrote:
| Try some Belgian butter if you can get your hands on it. It's
| less widely available French, but its excellent and doesn't carry
| a Francophile premium ...
|
| Also, ghee! Also cultured butter!
|
| So many great butter and butter-adjacent products out there ...
| nemo44x wrote:
| Happy to see Plugra and Organic Valley mentioned as "good"
| American butters. I use Plugra for most everything. There are
| some French butters I prefer but the import cost is high.
| KerryGold is fine.
| peer2pay wrote:
| My biggest confusion when shopping for butter in the US was
| trying to find one without added "butter aroma". If I'm already
| buying butter, why does it need flavourings of the very thing
| it's made of?
|
| I think we ended up settling for imported (Kerrigold?) butter
| that we knew from Germany...
| hinkley wrote:
| At this point I use Kerrygold every time I want to taste the
| butter. I sacrifice a pound to the garlic gods every few months,
| making clarified garlic butter which is amazing if you use garden
| garlic.
|
| The remnant gets mixed with a quarter cup of butter and garlic
| bread is made. Now I'm hungry.
| gorgoiler wrote:
| Kerrygold's ability to contain such an amazing amount of
| carotene -- the source of the rich orange color -- is so
| admirable in a mass produced product. Consistency in such a
| basic, natural foodstuff is no joke.
| mywittyname wrote:
| Kerrygold is amazing for the price and availability. I always
| set some out for dinner parties.
| ericmcer wrote:
| Kerrygold is great for strong savory foods, but I am too
| American to enjoy itin some cases. Frying eggs, grilled cheese,
| some cookies all suffer from the grassy taste overriding weaker
| flavors. American butter doesn't really taste like anything but
| cream/fat to me.
| nostrebored wrote:
| Whenever I hear takes like these I wonder how many people
| I've disgusted with my cooking. I have _literally no idea_
| what you're talking about, much like it was a shock the first
| time someone said cilantro tasted like soap.
|
| Really makes you respect people who manage to make everyone
| happy through cooking for a living!
| LegitShady wrote:
| People have totally different perceptions of taste
| sometime. I don't think most people get really disgusted.
| If you have cliantro soap taste genes you know about it and
| are clear to people about your ability to accept cilantro.
|
| Many other things are just what you're used to. I spent a
| while trying chicken fried steak recipes with different
| oils and found out I liked sunflower oil the best, in terms
| of flavor. Many people can't stand it. It's just what you
| like.
| ericmcer wrote:
| It isn't disgusting but just noticeably grassy to me. Try
| melting some in a pan vs cheap American butter it smells
| almost like tallow to me.
| jcims wrote:
| My youngest daughter and I set out to do a butter tournament in
| which we would pick the best tasting butter among all of those
| available in our local supermarkets. I believe we bought about
| $60 or $70 worth of butter and tried them on toast, in soup,
| and then just eating a little pat of it neat.
|
| Kerrygold took the gold. I keep one of the doublewide bars in
| this [1] butter dish on the counter. Every now and then I'll
| grab a cracker and scoop off a bit. It's so good.
|
| 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WNV847W
| canucker2016 wrote:
| I first heard about the higher-fat French butter when I read
| about a French pastry chef/baker who moved to Canada, only to
| have difficulty replicating her pastries using local Canadian
| butter.
|
| see https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/food-
| tren...
|
| So it was off to search for small-dairy/imported higher-fat
| butter.
|
| Lately, BIG Canadian butter companies have entered the higher-fat
| butter market, https://www.gaylea.com/products/specialty-
| butters/bakers-gol...
| rippercushions wrote:
| > _Many European butters are also cultured (meaning they're made
| with added live cultures, resulting in a lactic flavor), which
| can further enhance the tanginess._
|
| I'm surprised culturing is reduced to a single throwaway line,
| since it makes a huge difference in flavor: some of the heavily
| cultured butter brands out there are closer to cheese. If you're
| ever in Australia, try Pepe Saya on fresh sourdough!
| ssnistfajen wrote:
| The lactic acid tanginess from bacterial cultures is the
| biggest difference in the taste difference between European and
| American butter IMO. The 84% vs. 82% fat thing is way too
| overrated as I've had uncultured butter made in both ratios and
| they were virtually indistinguiable as spreads.
| Svip wrote:
| Indeed. The butter I buy here in Denmark is also 80% fat, and
| it tastes nothing like the blandness of US butter. Speaking
| personally, though, I definitely prefer Danish butter to French
| butter, but French butter is still really good.
| pjmorris wrote:
| > If you're ever in Australia, try Pepe Saya on fresh
| sourdough!
|
| As it happens, I will be in Australia for a bit next month.
| This is the kind of intelligence I find invaluable. One thing I
| like doing as a tourist is going to grocery stores to see how
| locals eat. What else should I be looking for? [Insert joke
| about Foster's here :)]
| elliottkember wrote:
| Not the OP, but a kiwi, and here are mine:
|
| - Marmite. Not too much, just a light spread. Try it with
| eggs. - Eta Munchos, spicy tomato flavour (NZ based, but you
| may find them) - a pie from a bakery - tim tams - whitaker's
| chocolate - anzac biscuits
| xavor wrote:
| Or toast, salted butter, Marmite, and cucumber
| fukawi2 wrote:
| If you're American, buy some bread while you're here. Ours is
| much more "bread" and less "sugar cake".
| mcphage wrote:
| There are bakeries in the US, you know.
| rippercushions wrote:
| In both Australia and the US, mass market/supermarket bread
| is crap. Of course there's plenty of decent sourdough etc
| to be found (Sonoma etc), but you have to look for it and
| it will cost you a pretty penny.
| golemiprague wrote:
| [dead]
| sdfghswe wrote:
| Am I the only one to find butter disgusting? It's just a blob of
| fat.
|
| Now what really blows my mind is to learn that for some people,
| more fat is better.
|
| I haven't tasted butter since I was a kid, some 25+ years ago.
| Maybe now I would find the _flavor_ delicious (doubt it) but so
| what? There's many things which might be delicious that I don't
| to put in my body.
|
| EDIT: I'm European living in the USA - seems relevant to this
| thread.
| 226_ebro_treaty wrote:
| I find the thought of eating fish and seafood abhorrent, as I
| do not respect them. However, I don't deny that some people
| find them tasty.
|
| Try some butter on toast if it's been that long! I'm sure
| you'll enjoy it to some degree :-)
| nostrebored wrote:
| Why would less fat be better? Fatty foods have been high in
| demand for basically all of human history.
| ninju wrote:
| If you want to another 'exotic' brand of butter, you should grab
| some Amul brand butter from your local Indian grocery store.
|
| Very rich and creamy
| anyfoo wrote:
| Now do chocolate. The first time I tasted Hershey's chocolate
| was... interesting, to say the least. For the uninitiated: It
| tastes like vomit. No, I'm not being purposefully annoying, it
| _literally_ tastes like vomit. And that 's entirely unsurprising,
| because apparently whatever process they use produces butyric
| acid.
|
| I got over it in small quantities. I can eat Hershey's Kisses,
| which are rather tiny, and the vomit is now just an expected by-
| taste that works in small doses.
| gorgoiler wrote:
| And also why the butyl rubber handles on your fancy power tools
| will eventually end up smelling like vomit. Always an odd
| design choice to see.
| NorSoulx wrote:
| My favourite is the French Le Gall Grand Cru organic and
| unpasteurised butters:
|
| From their web-site
|
| https://www.laiterie-legall.fr/nos-collections/?lang=en#beur...:
|
| "Grand Cru butters
|
| These butters are produced exclusively using unpasteurised raw
| creams.
|
| They are more fragile and do not keep as long. These are the most
| flavoursome butters.
|
| Churned butter made with raw milk undergoes only a little heat
| treatment.
|
| This gives it an authentic taste that is even more pronounced
| than a traditional churn"
| slothtrop wrote:
| I had repeatedly heard that preparing your own butter is a waste
| of time because it wouldn't taste much different than store-
| bought varieties, but I suspect this doesn't apply to the
| cultured variant. It's possible to make cultured butter and
| buttermilk using kefir. I intend to try this and then... make
| croissants or something. Considering the price of milk/cream vs a
| stick of grass-fed cultured "European-style" butter, worth a try.
| darreninthenet wrote:
| We sometimes make our own butter and it is our favourite to be
| honest but the problem is it only lasts about a week (unless
| you salt it, which we don't) so we break it up into small
| chunks and freeze it
| slothtrop wrote:
| Good tip
| paganel wrote:
| I'm definitely not as much a butter aficionado as the author of
| the article is, just wanted to add that for me one of the best
| choices when it comes to European butter is the Irish Kerrygold.
| It's absolutely great butter, imo it's better even compared to
| more expensive French butters.
|
| Related, one of my best memories related to butter, and a genuine
| good memory all around, was when my grandma was asking me to make
| butter while she was busy doing some other stuff around the
| house. It was easy enough and she knew that even city-boy me
| couldn't mess that simple thing up. It was very similar to what
| this guy is doing in this video [1]
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9JjRKTp_us&t=9s
| patrickk wrote:
| https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-10-02/how-irish...
| finikytou wrote:
| no its not better than more expensive french butters. or you
| tried cheap french butter with marked up price.
|
| try a bordier butter and come back telling me kerrygold is
| better.
| artificialLimbs wrote:
| Kerrygold quality seems to have went down drastically recently,
| maybe a year or two ago. Tastes rancid compared to Plugra, but
| it is still better than the other butters at $megamart.
| acallaghan wrote:
| British & Irish butter is also excellent, don't give the French
| all the credit!
| gorgoiler wrote:
| McGee (in _On Food and Cooking_ ) talks about a third variety:
| British butter. It has the dehydrated qualities of French butter
| but without the cultured flavor. It's not better or worse, just
| different, and another excellent addition to the toolkit.
|
| As an aside it's always perplexed me why we talk about the fat
| content of butter when it's the water that's playing the role of
| modifying taste, texture, and steam generating potential. It's
| like talking about the water content of wine being 88% when
| you're really interested in the other half of the equation -- the
| alcohol content!
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