“Another blog on butter?”.. you say. And I say… “I could write several more!“. There is simply so much to explore with this very underrated dairy treasure.

As mentioned in my last blog, many people are now reaching out to ‘artisan’, and the ‘pure-and-simple’, both for enjoyment and for health benefits. It is now understood that industrial format and commercialism have largely distorted our perception and our acceptance. At La Jolie we have come to see this clearly with reference to cheese, and we are excited to see the same awakening taking place in discovering the joy of good butter.

Over the last few weeks, one of the recurring questions we have been asked is… “What is the difference between regular (sweet or salted) butter and cultured butter?”.

All butter is the product of churning cream. This physical action separates it into fats and liquid. The fat collected is used to make butter, while the liquid (buttermilk) is drained off. Regular (fresh) cream is used to make sweet butter (with the addition of salt, or ‘salted’, being optional). By contrast, letting the cream ferment naturally, or with the controlled addition of live bacteria before churning, will yield a more tangy end product. This is suitably called “cultured butter”. So basically, the difference in outcome is clean and rich vs. complex and tang.

Either way you choose, the important thing to always remember is the starting point. Happy cows (or goats or sheep), in a healthy and natural environment, become bearers of the goodness of our Earth. This, together with the methodical, skilled, and heart-felt dedication of the maker… using harmony rather than control… always achieves the most glorious of outcomes.