European Butter

My hubby's uncle has a farm that sells milk to kerrygold. Irish cows are happy cows. They roam free, they eat lush grass, they are happy.

After making a pie one time with kerrygold, I stopped buying regular butter. Thankfully Costco sells kerrygold, as does TJs, for a reasonable amount of money. American stuff just isn't real. Just look at the color difference.

Beer. No matter how many American beers I've tried, I still prefer imported stuff.

More fat in Plugra butter...82% versus American 80%.

Also, Europeans butters are unsalted, so the product creates a much better pastry.

Now, let's make some Croissants with that butter...yum..

As a "European" Transplanted into Texas I can safely say that 90% of American cheese is putrid. It has got better over the last couple of years with some reasonable imports and the relaxing of laws concerning pasteurization. If the only "Parmesan" cheese you have ever eaten is that dried grated stuff, to try parmigiano reggiano which has properly warmed up to room temperature is a delight. Also proper British mature cheddar is light years away from the stuff you buy in Wal-mart. I never refrigerate my butter, it sits out on my counter and is properly soft.

Many European butters are identifiable by the food the cows eat (for example, they only eat grass on particular cliff by the sea in a particular province in a specific country), and most American butters (the mass-produced ones, not the artisan ones) are a blend of milk from no identifiable source. Often the European butters taste so good because the grass and feed are so specially sourced and consistent.

European butters, as others have correctly said, contain more butterfat. They are better for baking and for spreading on good quality baked goods (like an excellent croissant, but not an ordinary piece of toast, for example), but they are not acceptable for use in sauteeing, due to the increased fat content (they tend to burn faster).

I took a cooking class given by a chef at one of the most prestigious 5 star hotels in the country. He said: use European butter in baked goods (less water, more fat), and when serving fine pastries or homemade special breads. He also said that the only American butter he would allow in his kitchen, for routine uses, was Challenge Butter - their traditional style. (Challenge makes a traditional butter and a European-style higher fat version as well). He preferred KerryGold for his baked goods and special presentations.

Cultured butter is different altogether. Some European butters are cultured or have cultured butter added to their formula, but not all cultured butters are European. A cultured butter is made from properly aged milk or cream and bacteria (the good kind) are allowed to slowly ferment. Then the cultured cream or milk is turned into butter. It has an even higher fat content and it's delicious. Interesting thing: people who are lactose-intolerant (NOT allergic to dairy: that's an entirely different situation) can sometimes enjoy cultured butter, because the bacteria have consumed the lactose that bothers the lactose-intolerant person.

There is less water in european butter. It's much better for making pastry. Since it's so expensive, though, I would use regular butter for everything else.

Trader Joe's used to sell Plugra. I stopped buying it when they stopped selling it, though. Too expensive at other stores.

ETA:
I just read some of the other comments. I must live in one of the best food areas of the country. Our local beer, bread, cheese, chocolate, and wine makers can rival those found in Europe. You can even get an exceptionally good croissant. (And I forgot to include best coffee! geesh.)

I grew up at a time in this country where the mom and pop had local dairies and the milk came to the door in glass bottles with the cream on the top. We also ate real butter and it was left out of the frig and never spoiled.

If you want real butter perhaps you can make up your own. Just get the heavy whipping cream and beat it up until it turns into butter. I have done that and it is delicious. I still buy whole milk. The 2% and skim free are just left over milk after they take everything else out of it.

When my husband drove for a trucking company that picked up raw milk from dairies, I would ask him for left over milk (the raw milk in a 40 foot hose that ran down the drain to make milk soap. The 5 gallon container sat on the counter and when it settled out I would have a good quart of cream on the top and the rest was milk. Did not drink it but could have it was just not pasteurized.

We were stationed in Germany and there are foods that I can find here through specialty shops that are the real thing. Oh, the soft cheeses are great. I had a few on a ferry crossing the English Channel and boy was it good. I don't remember the name so I can't look it up.

Have a great day and enjoy.

the other S.

Cheese! We went to a cheese factory in Volendam, years ago and it was so tasty!

I believe this where we were.

http://www.cheesefactoryvolendam.com/pictures

Many, if not all of the European butters are made from cows that graze on real grass, making the fat profile much healthier. (Lots of info on this online – some nutritionists believe the CLA in grass milk actually helps with weight loss.)

Check in the nutrition departments of your local stores, and you may find some identified as from "pastured" or "grass-fed" cows. I don't have the most acute sense of taste, but I do think these taste better.

Funny, I made Belgian Waffles in my waffle maker yesterday and used European Plugra butter (first time). I CAN NOT BELIEVE how much better they tasted. My family was raving about them!

I love the imported Italian cheeses and French cheeses. My MIL gets her parmigiana sent to her from her sister in Italy and she even uses an old fashioned cheese grater.

Imported chocolates are fabulous too, although I recently discovered a chocolatier in town that rivals anything imported. He uses high end, high quality ingredients and makes everything on site. The only thing he needs to really improve is the fact that he uses artificial man-made dyes in some of his chocolates, like red. We talked about it, actually, when he asked me for opinions before Easter.

Hey, F. B., isn't your husband British? I think I recall that he is....my husband is an Englishman and we go over there each year to see the folks. Yep, the butter's better, but what I really miss is elderflower cordial, that non-alcoholic concentrate of elderflower blossom that tastes like heaven. I have obtained some here in the U.S. but that was imported from Germany! I'm not even sure there's a domestic producer of this gorgeous drink. Lately, we can get imported elderflower "presse" from British makers I know well, but a presse is like a carbonated soda, whereas the cordial is a syrup for diluting....I wish someone in the U.S. produced either one. In NYC you likely can get England's Belvoir brand presse easily (Whole Foods Markets carry it here) but I will have to get back to Devon for the real deal cordial....

Your question makes me very nostalgic for British foods (yes, dear readers, there ARE foods Britain does better than anyone). The other thing "miles apart from the U.S. standard" is scones. British ones are totally different from U.S. ones - ours are a sweet, dry pastry with icings and chocolate chips and all kinds of stuff they would never put in a scone in Britain. Theirs are simpler and not just a version of dried-out cake like so many here. I like many U.S. "scones" but they just are not the same foodstuff at all; only the name is similar!

OY. why did you post this. thankfully i am headed to europe in a few days and will eat til i drop dead or gain 50 lbs.