A pale yellow foodstuff derived from the churning of cream, typically used in baking, cooking, or for spreading on bread. Milk fat exists as globules of fat each surrounded by an outer core of protein. This creates the emulsion of oil in water seen in milk. If milk is churned or beaten, collision of the fat globules allows them to gradually increase in size; they lose their protective protein coat and consequently their solubility in water. The result is butter, which comprises c.82% fat and c.16% water.
When refrigerated, butter remains a solid, but softens to a spreadable consistency at room temperature, and melts to a thin liquid consistency at 32–35 °C (90–95 °F). Butter generally has a pale yellow color, but varies from deep yellow to nearly white. The color of the butter depends on the animal's feed and is sometimes manipulated with food colorings, most commonly annatto or carotene.
The term "butter" is used in the names of products made from puréed nuts or peanuts, such as peanut butter. It is also used in the names of fruit products, such as apple butter. examples include cocoa butter and shea butter. In general use, the term "butter", unqualified, almost always refers to the dairy product. The root word persists in the butyric acid found in rancid butter and other rancid dairy products.
Butter production
Unhomogenized milk and cream contain butterfat in the form of microscopic globules. Butter is produced by agitating cream, which damages these membranes and allows the milk fats to conjoin, separating from the other parts of the cream. Butter contains fat in three separate forms: free butterfat, butterfat crystals, and undamaged fat globules. In the finished product, different proportions of these forms result in different consistencies within the butter;
Almost all commercially-made butter today begins with pasteurized cream, which is commonly heated to a relatively high temperature above 80 °C (180 °F).
Churning produces small butter grains floating in the water-based portion of the cream. This consolidates the butter into a solid mass and breaks up embedded pockets of buttermilk or water into tiny droplets.
Commercial butter is about 80% butterfat and 15% water; traditionally-made butter may have as little as 65% fat and 30% water. Butter becomes rancid when these chains break down into smaller components, like butyric acid and diacetyl.
Types of butter
Before modern factory butter making, cream was usually collected from several milkings and was therefore several days old and somewhat fermented by the time it was made into butter. Butter made from a fermented cream is known as cultured butter. Today, cultured butter is usually made from pasteurized cream whose fermentation is produced by the introduction of Lactococcus and Leuconostoc bacteria.
Another method for producing cultured butter, developed in the 1970s, is to produce butter from fresh cream and then incorporate bacterial cultures and lactic acid. Using this method, the cultured butter flavor grows as the butter is aged in cold storage. For manufacturers, this method is more efficient since aging the cream used to make butter takes significantly more space than simply storing the finished butter product. A similar and even more efficient method is to add lactic acid and flavor compounds directly to the fresh-cream butter; while this more efficient process simulates the taste of cultured butter, the product produced is not considered real cultured butter. Butter made from pasteurized fresh cream is called sweet cream butter. Production of sweet cream butter first became common in the 19th century, with the development of refrigeration and the mechanical cream separator. Butter made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream is called raw cream butter. Raw cream butter has a "cleaner" cream flavor, without the cooked-milk notes that pasteurization introduces.
Throughout Continental Europe, cultured butter is preferred, while sweet cream butter dominates in the United States and the United Kingdom. Therefore, cultured butter is sometimes labeled European-style butter in the United States. Raw cream butter is virtually unheard-of in the United States, and is rare in Europe as well. Some modify the makeup of the butter's fat through chemical manipulation of the finished product, some through manipulation of the cattle's feed, and some by incorporating vegetable oils into the butter.
All categories of butter are sold in both salted and unsalted forms. Nations that favor sweet cream butter tend to favor salted butter as well, possibly reflecting the blander taste of uncultured butter. In the United States, all products sold as "butter" must contain a minimum of 80% butterfat by weight; Clarified butter is butter with almost all of its water and milk solids removed, leaving almost-pure butterfat. Clarified butter is made by heating butter to its melting point and then allowing it to cool off; Ghee is clarified butter which is brought to higher temperatures (120 °C/250 °F) once the water has cooked off, allowing the milk solids to brown.
History
Since even accidental agitation can turn cream into butter, it is likely that the invention of butter goes back to the earliest days of dairying, perhaps in the Mesopotamian area between 9000 and 8000 BCE. The earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat's milk; An ancient method of butter making, still used today in some parts of Africa and the Near East, is shown in the photo at right, taken in Palestine.
Butter was certainly known in the classical Mediterranean civilizations, but it does not seem to have been a common food, especially in Ancient Greece or Rome. In the warm Mediterranean climate, unclarified butter would spoil very quickly— unlike cheese, it was not a practical method of preserving the benefits of milk. Pliny's Natural History calls butter "the most delicate of food among barbarous nations", and goes on to describe its medicinal properties.
Historian and linguist Andrew Dalby says that most references to butter in ancient Near Eastern texts should actually be translated instead as ghee. The tale of the child Krishna stealing butter remains a popular children's story in India today.
Cooler climates in northern Europe allowed butter to be kept longer before spoiling. Across most of Europe after the fall of Rome and through much of the Middle Ages, butter was a common food, but one with a low reputation; Bread and butter became common fare among the new middle class, and the English, in particular, gained a reputation for their liberal use of melted butter as a sauce for meats and vegetables. Such "bog butter" would develop a strong flavor as it aged, but remain edible, in large part because of the unique cool, airless, antiseptic and acidic environment of a peat bog.
France, like Ireland, became well-known for its butter, particularly in the Normandy and Brittany regions. By the 1860s, butter had become so in demand in France that Emperor Napoleon III offered prize money for an inexpensive substitute to supplement France's inadequate butter supplies. The first margarine was beef tallow flavored with milk and worked like butter;
Until the 19th century, the vast majority of butter was made by hand, on farms. The first butter factories appeared in the United States in the early 1860s, after the successful introduction of cheese factories a decade earlier. Initially, whole milk was shipped to the butter factories, and the cream separation took place there. By 1900, more than half the butter produced in the United States was factory made;
Per capita butter consumption declined in most western nations during the 20th century, in large part because of the rising popularity of margarine, which is less expensive and, until recent years, was perceived as being healthier. In the United States, margarine consumption overtook butter during the 1950s and it is still the case today that more margarine than butter is eaten in the U.S. and most other nations that track such data.
Shape of Butter Sticks
In the United States, butter sticks are usually produced and sold in eight-tablespoon (approximately 74 ml) sticks, wrapped in wax paper and sold four to a carton. Due to historical variances in butter printers, these sticks are commonly produced in two differing shapes. This shape was originally developed by the Elgin Butter Tub Company, founded in 1882 in Elgin, Illinois and Rock Falls, Illinois. Among the early butter printers to use this shape was the Elgin Butter Cutter.
West of the Rocky Mountains, butter printers standardized on a different shape that is now referred to as the Western-Pack shape..
Both sticks contain the same amount of butter, although most butter dishes are designed for Elgin-style butter sticks.
Worldwide
India produces and consumes more butter than any other nation, dedicating almost half of its annual milk production to making butter or ghee. In 1997, India produced 1,470,000 metric tons of butter, consuming almost all of it. In terms of consumption, Germany was second after India, using 578,000 tons of butter in 1997, followed by France (528,000), Russia (514,000), and the United States (505,000). Most nations produce and consume the bulk of their butter domestically. New Zealand, Australia, and the Ukraine are among the few nations that export a significant percentage of the butter they produce.
Different varieties of butter are found around the world. It consists of tea served with intensely flavored — or "rancid"—yak butter and salt. In African and Asian developing nations, butter is traditionally made from sour milk rather than cream. It can take several hours of churning to produce workable butter grains from fermented milk.
Storage and cooking
Normal butter softens to a spreadable consistency around 15 °C (60 °F), well above refrigerator temperatures. The "butter compartment" found in many refrigerators may be one of the warmer sections inside, but it still leaves butter quite hard. Until recently, many refrigerators sold in New Zealand featured a "butter conditioner", a compartment kept warmer than the rest of the refrigerator—but still cooler than room temperature—with a small heater.
"French butter dishes" or "Acadian butter dishes" involve a lid with a long interior lip, which sits in a container holding a small amount of water. The water acts as a seal to keep the butter fresh, and also keeps the butter from overheating in hot temperatures.
Once butter is softened, spices, herbs, or other flavoring agents can be mixed into it, producing what is called a composed butter or composite butter.
Melted butter plays an important role in the preparation of sauces, most obviously in French cuisine. Beurre noisette (hazel butter) and Beurre noir (black butter) are sauces of melted butter cooked until the milk solids and sugars have turned golden or dark brown; Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are emulsions of egg yolk and melted butter; Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are stabilized with the powerful emulsifiers in the egg yolks, but butter itself contains enough emulsifiers—mostly remnants of the fat globule membranes—to form a stable emulsion on its own. Beurre blanc (white butter) is made by whisking butter into reduced vinegar or wine, forming an emulsion with the texture of thick cream. Beurre monté (prepared butter) is an unflavored beurre blanc made from water instead of vinegar or wine; it lends its name to the practice of "mounting" a sauce with butter: whisking cold butter into any water-based sauce at the end of cooking, giving the sauce a thicker body and a glossy shine—as well as a buttery taste.
Butter is used for sautéing and frying, although its milk solids brown and burn above 150 °C (250 °F)—a rather low temperature for most applications. The actual smoke point of butterfat is around 200 °C (400 °F), so clarified butter or ghee is better suited to frying.
Butter fills several roles in baking, where it is used in a similar manner as other solid fats like lard, suet, or shortening, but has a flavor that may better complement sweet baked goods. Many cookie doughs and some cake batters are leavened, at least in part, by creaming butter and sugar together, which introduces air bubbles into the butter. Some cookies like shortbread may have no other source of moisture but the water in the butter. Butter, because of its flavor, is a common choice for the fat in such a dough, but it can be more difficult to work with than shortening because of its low melting point.
| Protein | 1 g |
|---|---|
| Vitamin A 684 μg | 76% |
| Cholesterol | 215 mg |
|
Fat percentage can vary. See also Types of butter. Percentages are relative to US RDI values for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient database |
According to USDA figures, one tablespoon of butter (14 grams) contains 100 calories, all from fat, 11 grams of fat, of which 7 grams are saturated fat, and 30 milligrams of cholesterol. In other words, butter consists mostly of saturated fat and is a significant source of dietary cholesterol.
Small amounts of butter contain only traces of lactose, so moderate consumption of butter is not generally a problem for those with lactose intolerance. People with milk allergies do need to avoid butter, which does contain enough of the allergy-causing proteins to cause reactions.
User Comments Add a comment…