Butter Late Than Never! A Quick Read on Butter

Butter is in just about everything and there are many different kinds of butter available. Regular salted butter. Unsalted butter. Organic salted and unsalted butter. Butter from grass-fed cows. Butter from goats or sheep. Clarified butter. With so many butter varieties to choose from, it comes as no surprise that you might be a little confused on what kind of butter to buy and what purpose it serves. 

We'll start with discussing the basics. Regular salted and unsalted butter is made from cream skimmed off of cows milk - that is churned until it begins to form into butter. Unsalted butter is often used in baking recipes to allow users to control the salt content. Organic butter is made from organic cream. Livestock that produces organic cream are not given antibiotics, growth hormones, or parasiticides and are fed an organic diet. These cows are required to graze in a pasture a certain portion of the year, so many argue that organic butter has a better taste and is more animal-friendly. Just as it sounds, grass-fed butter made from grass-fed cows. Grass-fed butter tends to be more golden than regular butter as the cow's consumer higher rates of beta-carotene. 

With a low melting temperature, goat's butter (yes, made from goats milk) is ideal at room temperature and is recommending for baking. It provides a rich flavor to butter cookies and other baked goods. Sheep's milk is reported to be the creamiest of all milk and is often said to have a sweeter taste than cows milk. Due to the creaminess of the milk, sheep's butter is luxuriously creamy and delicious. 

Ghee is clarified butter and it is delicious (probably because it is 100% butterfat), without the milk proteins or water that regular butter contains.  Ghee has gained popularity among the food allergy community as it is free of lactose and casein. In addition, it's a heat-stable cooking fat which makes it great for baking and sauteing. The higher smoke point of ghee also makes it suitable for frying. 

There are plenty of other kinds of butter on the market, so stay tuned for another quick read on this enticing spread.