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Butter, what comes to your mind when you hear the word? There are many varieties and ways butter may be used in baking recipes. The only decision you had to make was salted or unsalted. But these days, there is a proliferation of options in the stores, and more and more recipes and recipes are specifying specific styles of butter.
Confused about the difference, and where and when you should use the various types? Let’s discuss the butter aisle and what to choose for what recipes you are going to bake with.
Although you might be used to sticks or tubs of butter as your go-to kitchen fat, there are many — and I mean many — different types of butter out there, all with their own distinct flavors, textures, and functions.
You probably know the basics of butter: Aside from being available in solid whiteish-yellow blocks at the grocery store, it’s typically made from cow’s milk (although you might find goat and sheep butter at farmers markets and specialty stores). The cream that is produced from milk is churned until solid, and the liquid left behind is buttermilk (which is really easy to make from scratch, by the way). American-sold butters are about 80% butterfat, with the remaining percentages made up of mostly water (15% to 18%) and a small amount made up of milk solids.
Unsalted butter is the all-purpose flour of the butter world. If a recipe simply calls for “butter,” this is the one to choose. Unsalted butter has a pure, creamy flavor. Its use in recipes allows the cook to have complete control over salt levels, making it a go-to for both baking and savory cooking. Unsalted butter will usually have 80% butterfat, and 16 to 18% water. I like to buy packs of “half-sticks,” which give me the most flexibility with butter, especially for baking.
Unless a recipe specifically calls for salted butter, it is generally best used for spreading on toast, radishes, crackers, and other straight usage. Salt was originally added to butter as a preservative, and as such, it was often believed that commercial salted butter used lesser quality or older cream. These days, it is really just a flavor preference. If you are team “Butter on the Counter,” salted will be your best bet to pack into your butter bell, as it will last longer than unsalted.
European butters have a higher butterfat percentage than American butters, and have become the butters of choice for many chefs, bakers, and passionate home cooks. American butters have to have 80% butterfat to be called butter, European butters or American-made “European style” butters have between 82% and 90% butterfat (and a maximum of 16% water), which makes for a richer flavor. These are great for spreading on bread at the table, but also can make a lovely difference in sauces that are boosted with butter , or rich baked goods.
This light fluffy salted butter comes in convenient tubs, and is a great option if you want butter that is more easily spreadable than sticks, even when right out of the fridge. These are a good choice if you live in a hot climate and leaving butter out isn’t an option for you. Perfect for toast, pancakes, baked potatoes and the like.
If you like, you can make your own whipped butter by just whipping cool room temperature butter in your stand mixer or with a hand mixer until it is aerated and fluffy. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. We don’t recommend using whipped butter in recipes unless you weigh it, as the aeration makes volume measures inaccurate for recipe use.
There are a variety of salted and unsalted cultured vegan butters on the market. You can find options made with vegetable oil, almond oil, olive oil, avocado oil, cashew milk, and coconut oil. They taste and act just like dairy butter, whether you’re baking, spreading, melting, or browning.
Clarified butter is butter that has been cooked to remove the water and milk solids, leaving pure butterfat. This gives it a much higher smoke point, which means you can cook with it without risk of burning. Unless you are shopping at a restaurant supply house, you will need to make your own clarified butter.
Ghee is a South Asian style of clarified butter, where the milk solids have been left to brown before straining, giving it the addition of a lovely nutty flavor. Ghee is readily available in grocery stores and is a wonderful product to keep on hand when you want to sauté or do other higher heat cooking and want that buttery flavor. Both are also great options for those who have dairy sensitivities, but not allergies.
The French call brown butter “beurre noisette,” or hazelnut butter, as a nod to its deep brown color and nutty, complex aroma and flavor. Brown better is butter that is melted and then cooked further, until the water evaporates and the milk solids brown and become toasty.
Cultured butter is made with cream that has been allowed to ferment slightly, intensifying the flavor and bringing some lovely tangy notes to the final product. It is great for spreading on bread, garnishing vegetables, or making compound butters, and is especially good drizzled on popcorn. We don’t recommend using it in recipes unless the text specifically calls for it, since the tangy flavor can be pronounced.
Sweet cream butter is simply butter made specifically with pasteurized fresh cream as its main ingredient, as opposed to cultured or soured cream (which tend to give butter a slightly tart flavor). Contrary to its name, though, sweet cream butter isn’t sweeter or creamier than the typical stick of butter you’d normally come across, as explained further in our article about sweet cream butter. Most major American brands of sweet cream butter contain about 80% butterfat. Sweet cream butter can be salted or unsalted.
Irish butter, which is produced from (no surprise here) Irish dairy cows, is a type of European-style butter that is churned until it reaches about 82% butterfat. One popular brand is Kerrygold.
The bright yellow color comes from the beta carotene in the rich grasslands that Irish cows feed on. “Grass-fed” is a term you’ve likely seen attached to various packages of butter at the grocery store. The term simply refers to the diet consumed by the cows from which the butter is made. Grass-fed butter is produced from milk derived from cows that graze in grasslands rather than being fed a grain-based diet. Grass-fed butter tends to have a richer yellow hue, and proponents say it has a richer flavor than regular butter.
Amish butter is easily recognizable due to its unique shape. Amish butter usually comes in a log and is made from cream that is churned to about 84% butterfat, making for an extra-creamy texture.
This style of butter is traditionally produced within or around Amish communities and some brands of Amish butter, like Minerva Dairy, sell their butter in 2- or 8-pound rolls as well as quarter sticks. Since Amish butter has such a high butterfat content, it’s great in recipes like pie crusts, cookies, and pastries, which typically rely on a lot of butter for richness.
A compound butter is typically made by flavoring softened sticks of butter with additional ingredients and seasonings. You can use either unsalted or salted butter and any spices and seasonings you love.
Common add-ins for compound butters include spices like paprika or chipotle chile powder, finely chopped herbs such as thyme or basil, and alliums like roasted garlic. Compound butters are great when rolled into a log in plastic wrap — this makes it easier to slice into coins — and placed on top of a just-out-of-the-skillet steak or simply spread on a piece of crusty bread. (Read more about compound butters here.)
Plant-based butter is exactly what it sounds like — butter that is produced by mixing oils derived from plants with water
Plant-based butters are similar to margarine (read more below), except plant-based butters are usually explicitly branded as vegan. Plant-based butters are typically made from olive oil, soybean oil, palm kernel oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil. Brands like Mykonos sell plant-based butters that are great options for vegan cooking and baking.
Butter that is branded as “light” typically contains butter in combination with other ingredients, such as water and buttermilk, that reduce the overall amount of cholesterol, fat, and calories in the spread.
Many brands, such as Land O Lakes, specifically make butter labeled as “light butter,” often combined with ingredients like canola oil. Other popular brands, like Smart Balance, use terms like “buttery spread.” These types of “buttery spreads” are typically made from a blend of different vegetable oils, as opposed to the fat in cream.
Let me get this part out of the way: According to the Food and Drug Administration, it’s safe to leave butter and margarine out at room temperature. The agency warns that leaving your butter in this temperate state for a few days may result in its flavor turning toward rancid, but I leave my butter out on the counter when the recipe calls for softened butter.
Whether it’s OK to leave butter out at room temperature or not is a hotly debated issue, but the truth is it’s perfectly fine to keep butter out at room temperature for up to two weeks. The concern for room-temperature butter is that it will go rancid. But that won’t happen as quickly as you might think — especially if avoid these four mistakes.
Yes, butter is a dairy product, and dairy products degrade when left out at room temperature, but butter is at least 80 percent fat and has a much lower water content than other dairy, which makes for a product that’s much less susceptible to bacterial growth.
On most occasions, butter can sit out at room temperature for up to two weeks. The reason butter can sit out at room temperature for substantial amounts of time, while other forms of dairy like milk or cream can’t, is that butter has a much lower water content than other dairy, which makes it less likely to develop bacterial growth.
It’s fine to leave unsalted butter out on the counter for a few hours if you’re planning to bake with it, but if you’re going to leave any butter out at room temperature for an extended period of time, make it salted. That’s because the salt in salted butter adds extra protection against any sort of bacterial growth.
Exposure to light and air are the two main reasons butter goes rancid or spoils, which means it’s wise to be savvy about the container you’re storing the butter in at room temperature.
Leaving it out in simply the wax paper wrapper it came in or even just on a plate wrapped in plastic wrap should be avoided. Instead, choose a butter dish.
You can also opt for a butter crock, also called a butter bell or butter keeper. With these containers the butter is kept in a small pot that is immersed in water, creating an airtight seal. Both a dish and crock also help keep the butter soft and spreadable while at a steady temperature.
If you live in a warm climate or it’s the peak of summer, your kitchen just might simply be too warm to leave butter out on the counter. If the temperature in your kitchen hovers steadily above 70°F, you’re better off storing butter in the fridge.
The USDA recommends leaving butter out at room temperature for only a day or two. But if it’s stored in all of the proper conditions listed above, it can stay fresh for up to two weeks. So don’t leave out more than you think you’ll be able to get through in that small period of time.
If you’re unsure if your butter is OK to eat, simply give it a smell. If it’s rancid it will most definitely smell off, and if you’re willing to give it a taste, it should taste unpleasantly sour.
So, in conclusion I have discussed the many uses and varieties of butter. In addition to, the best way in storing your butter. I hope that this clarifies any questions that you may have had regarding butter!
I hope you will join me in next month’s Blog when I discuss and peel the layers back on different types of baking equipment and the variations of colored pans and baking times on your recipes.
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