[Sca-cooks] OOP: Cottage Cheese & Butter - US vs. Canada

Lilinah lilinah at earthlink.net
Thu Jun 5 14:04:04 PDT 2008


Stefan asked:
>Or, what is the difference between US and "European" butter? I'm
>seeing "European" or "European style" butter show up in my grocery
>store alongside the salted and unsalted butter.  Is there a real
>difference or is it just marketing hype?

I get the digest, so this may have been answered already, but there 
can be several differences.

First, butters even from different regions in one country can taste 
difference, since the feed affects the flavor of the milk and cream.

Second, the breed of cow can also affect the flavor. Here in the US 
darned near every dairy cow is a Holstein - the black and white 
spotted ones. But there used to be a lot more different breeds - 
Holsteins are preferred because they produce a lot more milk. Other 
breeds produce more cream with the milk, and i assume that the flavor 
of the milk from different breeds can vary, too.

Third, for many European butters the cream is slightly sour, so the 
butter has a stronger flavor. Some dairies here in NoCal do this now, 
too, mostly organic ones.

One the other hand, this being the US and all, some of it may be 
marketing hype.

I recall when i was twelve i went to France with my parents (that was 
back in the spring of 1961). My parents didn't fly anywhere unless 
absolutely forced to. We went on the second Atlantic crossing of the 
"France", long before the poor old beauty devolved into a cruise 
ship. We were served butter from different regions in France with our 
meals, the region being specified on the menu.

When i lived in France in 1973, butter from different regions was 
available - i think i still have some of the wrappers, since they 
featured young women in "traditional" regional dress.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

My LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah


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