They say all that glitters isn’t gold, but butter is yet another shining example of something wonderful that comes in a beautiful yellow package. The fat, discovered thousands of years ago, has the ability to make anything delicious, and has been showing up on our plates in a myriad of velvety and delicious ways ever since. From French mother sauces like béchamel to a knob of butter on top of a piping-hot baked potato, the liquid gold has the power to transform a dish with its creamy taste and luxurious mouthfeel.
Romain Avril, chef, author and host of "Serve It Or Trash It"
Most of us use butter regularly when cooking, but how much do we actually know about it? Unsalted or salted, cultured and clarified. How much money should we be willing to drop on a stick of butter, and should we be storing it in the fridge or keeping it on the counter?
We pick the brain of Romain Avril, French chef, cookbook author and host of the YouTube show Serve It Or Trash It to uncover the secrets of butter and learn the best ways to use it to refine our homecooking.
What is butter and how is it made?
“It starts with milk, and from milk, you get cream. I'm sure we've all done it: when you whip cream too much it starts to get grainy. That's actually the fat starting to separate from its buttermilk. If you carry on and whip that cream for another 10 minutes, you're going to have butter.”
What’s the history of butter?
“Well, it’s not French — who would have thought? The oldest traces of it take us back to ancient Africa, around 8,000 BC. The story goes that a herder was making a journey to the next village with a container of milk strapped to the back of one of his sheep. He found that the warm sheep’s milk, jostled during travel, had curdled into something remarkably tasty. Butter was born and so too was humankind’s happiness.”
Why is butter so important?
“To cook, you need fat. If you don't put fat into a pan when you cook something, you're going to burn out. It's a quintessential part of cooking. Being French, it's always present. I grew up seeing my father eat butter with a banana. I've been here for 14 years and it took me a long time to see high-quality butter in Canada because the dairy laws are pretty awful. Butter, like the food culture in Toronto, is something that's constantly evolving, and we are finally at a point where people are being appreciative of it.”
What do you look for in a great butter?
“The colour: A deep golden yellow means a richer, tastier butter. But you can't see through the packaging, so how do we know? Firstly, price is going to be a guide. I don't want you to spend $15 on what I call commodity butter that you’re going to cook your steak with — that’s more for your pastries.
Next, you want to see the cow’s diet: Look for grass-fed butter. Also, the butterfat content: the higher, the better, 82 per cent and up. The butter will be less watery, which is key when making pastries like croissants.
Pay attention to the terms ‘slow churn’ and ‘small-batch’ on the label. Slow churn refers to a deliberate churning process during butter production. This prolonged churning time typically produces butter with a creamier texture and a richer flavour profile. Similarly, small-batch labels indicate that the butter is produced in smaller quantities, often with a heightened focus on craftsmanship.”
How should you store it?
“You might not expect this answer, but I put high-quality butter like St Brigid’s Creamery in the freezer so it stays stable and edible. When it comes to a commodity butter that you use daily, storing it in the fridge is fine, but make sure it is well-wrapped, in the door compartment or under a sealed cloche. Butter is like a sponge and will absorb every smell and flavour.
It’s safe at room temperature — I’m 38 and I’ve eaten counter butter since I was four months old. My tip: Take whatever you need for the morning and place it in your dish or crock at room temperature overnight. Try to avoid the back and forth between fridge and counter: Butter is alive and will quickly develop bacteria.”
Should I buy salted or unsalted?
“You can use whatever you want, but as a rule of thumb, I always use unsalted for pastry. If you're doing a salted caramel, you can add a piece of salted butter. To me, being in control of sweetness, acidity and salinity is important — you can always add salt, but you can never remove it. You could use salted butter on top of veggies, a baked potato or steak, but you can also use a finishing salt which is my preference. If I buy salted butter, I also want to make sure the salt used is of a high quality.”
Butter Types
Cultured vs. uncultured butter
“Besides one cow going to university,” laughs Avril, “There is a major difference in the taste. Think about a steak with 20 days of aging versus 90 days: You’ll have way more funk in each bite. It’s the same thing with butter. Cultured is creamier and has a tang to it, similar to yogurt or buttermilk. If salted, then it’ll be even more pronounced. For the process, we simply add bacterial cultures into the cream, then it is fermented and gets churned.”
Clarified butter
“Clarified butter is used a lot in many cultures, from French cooking to Indian. When you melt butter, you still have milk solids — it's not 100 per cent fat like an oil. The milk solids are what burn. We separate those two, extract the milk solids and we keep that clarified butter that is now pure. It's just fat at this point. By doing this, you're increasing the smoking point, so now you can cook a steak or you can sear a fish.”
Brown butter
Mostly used for flavouring in dishes, brown butter is regular butter that has been heated until the solids have turned brown, resulting in a toasty, nutty flavour.
Ghee
“People confuse the two: It’s a mix between clarified and brown butter. [With ghee], we’ve cooked it longer before we separate the milk solids from the fat, resulting in two things: a darker yellow colour and the flavour is going to be more intensified. You’re going to have a bit of nuttiness, a funkier taste, which can be good but I wouldn’t use it for delicate food where the taste might overpower.”
Vegan
“I wrote a vegan cookbook, so I definitely used a lot of [vegan butters] and they're great, but you're not going to get that butter taste. You may as well just use a really good oil.”
Any other tips?
“I like to use butter to finish a sauce, a soup or a stew. Butter is just going to add that extra richness and kind of smooth everything out. Think of when you have a delicious red wine sauce. You have the acidity and it's almost perfect, it just lacks that extra layer. You add a bit of butter from cold, you emulsify it, and now you have something velvety and shiny. It's for the eye, for the nose and for the taste. It adds a little extra.”
Should I make it at home?
“The short answer is no. You’re going to spend a lot of money on cream, lose 50 per cent of it in the process, and have an average butter. You can make it once for fun so you know what goes into it, but I have a rule of thumb: If you can’t make it better, buy it.”
