Artisanal butter — something you can't believe? Just like the journey of cheese and other handcrafted products, butter was, for a time, deprived of its taste to fulfill the needs of mass production. Now, with the revived interest in where our food comes from and the care used to make it, buttah really is better.
The American Cheese Society holds a convention each year to hand out coveted prizes to American cheesemakers. The category of butter has added several classes as more varieties have emerged, awarding creameries recognition for best salted butter, unsalted butter, butter made from goat's, sheep's or mixed milks, and butter with flavor added.
The 2011 winner for a butter made from goat's milk went to the European-style Meyenberg Goat Butter based out of California. This lightly salted gourmet butter adds rich depth and flavor to holiday recipes with soft notes of hazelnut. Meyenberg Goat Butter also has a light and creamy texture, perfect for spreading on warm, crusty bread or crunchy toast. Many people allergic to cow milk can tolerate goat milk because of the low amounts of the protein casein, superior digestibility and uniform dispersion of fat in the milk, making this an appealing substitution for regular butter.
The third-place win in the salted butter category for cow's milk went to Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery's Vermont Cultured Butter. This lightly salted, farm-fresh butter makes a perfect ingredient in recipes calling for either salted or unsalted butter, as well as a base for compound (flavored) butters. Simply blend ingredients of your desired flavor profile with Vermont Cultured Butter, freeze in log shapes and slice off medallions for melting as needed. A final pat of rosemary, maple, citrus, blue cheese or truffle compound butter often provides an easy burst of flavor that will ingrain a dish in your memory forever.
An array of options adorns your local grocery store shelves, and an even larger selection can be found at Mazzaro's Italian Market (2909 22nd Ave. N, St. Pete, 727-321-2400, mazzarosmarket.com). Two other creameries targeting conscientious consumers by expanding their product lines include Straus Family Creamery and Cabot Creamery Cooperative.
But is including butter in your diet conscientious? A well-made product, full of flavor, naturally means more satisfaction. Feeling less hungry from eating creamy, churned butter — sign me up! Of course, the high content of calcium, minerals, vitamins and necessary fatty acids helps out too. Remembering to nurture our bodies with quality proves just as important as moderation and exercise.
If you're reluctant to start spreading butter around, perhaps you'll try an ancient product known to have medicinal qualities. Purity Farms in Colorado makes ghee, a clarified organic butter made from AA grade sweet cream. Common to Indian and South Asian cuisine, ghee holds mysterious properties thought to help keep the mind, body and spirit in balance. Purity Farms cooks its butter until the water and milk solids are removed, bringing out an intensely rich butter flavor and enabling it to withstand higher cooking temperatures. It'll make a great addition to your holiday dishes.
As Caroline Hostettler of Quality Cheese in Fort Myers recently said, "Food is fuel, but it's also a lot of pleasure."
Kira Jefferson is the resident "cheese guru" at SideBern's in South Tampa.
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2011.