butter

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(bŭt'ər) pronunciation
n.
  1. A soft yellowish or whitish emulsion of butterfat, water, air, and sometimes salt, churned from milk or cream and processed for use in cooking and as a food.
  2. Any of various substances similar to butter, especially:
    1. A spread made from fruit, nuts, or other foods: apple butter.
    2. A vegetable fat having a nearly solid consistency at ordinary temperatures.
  3. Flattery.
tr.v., -tered, -ter·ing, -ters.
To put butter on or in.

phrasal verb:

butter up

  1. To praise or flatter excessively: You're always buttering up the boss.

[Middle English butere, from Old English, from Latin būtȳrum, from Greek boutūron : bous, cow + tūros, cheese.]


salted butter

salted butter

A fatty, semi-solid substance with a greasy texture made by churning cream. Butter is mostly made from cow's milk. It consists of 80% milkfat and is graded by similar standards as milk, with consideration to flavor, texture, color and salt content.

Unsalted butter is recommended for baking. Whipped butter is softer and more easily spread because it has air beaten into it. Margarine and other butter substitutes are generally made with oils.
The word "butter" also refers to other fatty substances extracted from various plants; in these cases, the origin of the butter is specified (peanut butter, cocoa butter, almond butter, coconut butter).

Preparing

1 lb (500 g) of butter is equivalent to 2 cups (500 ml) of butter.

Butter can be "clarified," which is to say its whey solids can be removed. It then becomes limpid like oil and can stand up to frying. To clarify butter:

1. Melt the butter over a very gentle heat. It will then separate into three layers: a layer of froth on top; the pure fat in the middle (a thick, yellow liquid); and the whey beneath at the bottom of the saucepan. 

2. Skim the froth with a spoon and slowly pour the butter into a straining cloth (like cheesecloth) or leave the liquid deposit at the bottom of the saucepan. The butter can then be refrigerated. Once it solidifies, the clarified butter forms a crust, whereas the whey deposit stays liquid; it can then be simply put aside.

Keep homemade clarified butter 2 months in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer. Industrially made clarified butter can be left at room temperature.

Serving Ideas

Butter is found in sauces (the flour-and-butter mixtures beurre manié and roux, béarnaise sauce, hollandaise sauce), pastries (butter cream, flaky pastries), creams and soups. It is a basic ingredient in cooking, and is used on bread and toast, and in sandwiches. Various ingredients can be added to cold butter to obtain flavored butters for seasoning grills, fish, snails, seafood, canapés, vegetables and soups.

Whipped butter, light butter or margarine should not be used in place of ordinary butters in recipes. These are generally used as a spread.

Storing

Butter quickly loses its quality if it is 
kept too long at room temperature or is poorly wrapped. 

In the fridge: preferably in its original packaging or well covered. Keep it away from foods that might give it a bad taste. 8 weeks 
for unsalted butter and 12 weeks for salted butter, in their original packaging. Opened, 3 weeks.

In the freezer: 6 months. After this time, there is a slight loss of flavor. Freezing can also heighten its salty taste.

Cooking

Avoid heating butter over high heat. It can be used in combination with oil, which means it won't break down as quickly (heat the oil first, then add the butter).

Cold butter is more easily digested than melted butter. It doesn't lend itself well to high-temperature cooking, as its fats break down at temperatures of 250°F-270°F (120°C-130°C). Butter heated to this level turns brown and releases acrolein, an indigestible and toxic substance that may raise blood cholesterol levels.

Nutritional Information

lightwhippedunsaltedsalted
protein0.4 g0.1 gtracestraces
fat3.9 g7.8 g8.2 g8.2 g
carbohydrates0.6 gtracestracestraces
cholesterol12 mg21 mg22 mg22 mg
sodium69 mg79 mg82 mg2 mg
per 0.35 oz/10 g
Whipped butter, salted butter and unsalted butter all contain vitamin A. 

Butter is a controversial food, defended by some, particularly its producers, and highly criticized by others, especially the manufacturers of oil and margarine. Butter should be consumed in moderation, since it serves as a major source of fat, saturated fatty acids and cholesterol.



Browse other dairy products: Introduction | Milk | Goat's milk | Buttermilk | Sour cream | Butter | Cream | Yogurt | Ice cream | Cheese

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Solid emulsion of fat globules and water made by churning cream, used as a food. Presumably known since the advent of animal husbandry, butter has long been used as a cooking fat and as a spread. It was traditionally a farm product, but with the advent of the cream separator in the late 19th century it began to be mass-produced. It is a high-energy food, containing about 715 calories per 100 grams. It is high in butterfat (8085) and low in protein. Colouring is sometimes added to enhance its natural yellow colour (from carotene), and salt is often added.

For more information on butter, visit Britannica.com.

A food product made by churning cream. Butter is a water-in-fat emulsion. Cream is a fat-in-water emulsion. Cream consists of discrete fat globules, 6–16 micrometers in size, suspended in skim milk. Fat globules have a membrane or coating consisting of natural emulsifiers, lipoproteins, fat-soluble vitamins, cholesterol, and some other materials in lesser concentrations. The membrane provides stability for the globule and protects it from attack by lipase enzymes. See also Emulsion; Milk.

Butter manufacturers first pasteurize the cream. This heat treatment destroys bacteria, inactivates enzymes, and gives the cream a cooked or heated flavor. See also Pasteurization.

Following pasteurization, rapid cooling promotes fat crystals on the exterior and liquid fat on the interior of the fat globules. If the cream were churned after this step, the loss of fat to the buttermilk would be high. Thus, a tempering step is used in which the cream is held at about 50°F (10°C) to allow rearrangement of the fat crystals. Then, liquid fat is on the outside of the globules to allow rapid aggregation during churning.

Continuous churns produce as much as 15,000 lb (6800 kg) of butter per hour; they convert cream to butter in a few minutes. With the batch churn, about 45 min is needed to produce butter, and then at least 30 min to standardize the composition and get water dispersed in tiny droplets.

In the continuous churn the entering pasteurized and tempered cream is agitated vigorously by beater bars. This causes stripping of the fat globule membrane and aggregation of the fat globules into chunks 0.2–0.4 in. (0.5–1 cm) in diameter. At this point the emulsion has been inverted. The slope of the continuous churn allows the buttermilk to drain out the rear of the churn and the butter granules to continue through the churn barrel. The next flow-through position continues the kneading process to produce butter with finely dispersed droplets of moisture. If composition or color adjustment is required, it is done in this step; also, a salt solution is added to give the finished butter 1.2–1.5% salt. As the butter continues through the last step, more kneading is done with finer bars to complete the blending process and provide for fat crystallization that will yield optimum spreadability in the finished butter.

Butter in the package has a composition close to 80.0% milk fat, 1.2–1.5% salt, 17.5–17.8% water, and 1% milk solids. If butter is salt-free, the moisture and fat contents are adjusted to a slightly higher value to compensate.


Made from separated cream by churning (sweet cream butter); legally not less than 80% fat (and not more than 16% water) of which around 60% is saturated, a small proportion (3%) polyunsaturated, the rest being mono-unsaturated. Lactic butter is made by ripening the cream with a bacterial culture to produce lactic acid and increase the flavour (due to diacetyl). This is normally unsalted or up to 0.5% salt added. Sweet cream butter may be salted up to 2%. Butter supplies 72 kcal (300 kJ) per g; a 40-g portion (as spread on 4 slices of bread) is a rich source of vitamin A and contains 32 g of fat, of which two-thirds is saturated; supplies 300 kcal (1260 kJ).

Clarified butter is butter fat, prepared by heating butter and separating the fat from the water. It does not become rancid as rapidly as butter. Also known as ghee or ghrt (India) and samna (Egypt). Process or renovated butter has been melted and rechurned with the addition of milk, cream, or water. Drawn butter is melted butter used as a dressing for cooked vegetables. Devilled butter is mixed with lemon juice, cayenne and black pepper, and curry powder. Ravigote butter is creamed with chopped fresh aromatic herbs (tarragon, parsley, chives, chervil), usually served with grilled meat. Green butter is mixed with chopped herbs and other seasonings to produce a savoury spread. Black butter is browned by heating, then vinegar and seasonings are added.

Made by churning cream until it reaches a semisolid state, butter must by U.S. Law be at least 80 percent milk fat. The remaining 20 percent consists of water and milk solids. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grades butter quality based on flavor, body, texture, color and salt. Butter packages bear a shield surrounding the letter grade (and occasionally the numerical score equivalent) indicating the quality of the contents. The grades, beginning with the finest, are AA (93 score), A (92 score), B (90 score) and C (89 score). AA and A grades are those most commonly found at the retail level. Butter may be artificially colored (with natural annatto); it may also be salted or unsalted. Unsalted butter is usually labeled as such and contains absolutely no salt. It's sometimes erroneously referred to as "sweet" butter-a misnomer because any butter made with sweet instead of sour cream is sweet butter. Therefore, expect packages labeled "sweet cream butter" to contain salted butter. Unsalted butter is preferred by many for everyday eating and baking. Because it contains no salt (which acts as a preservative), it is more perishable than salted butter and therefore stored in the freezer section of some markets. Whipped butter has had air beaten into it, thereby increasing volume and creating a softer, more spreadable consistency when cold. It comes in salted and unsalted forms. Light or reduced-calorie butter has about half the fat of regular butter, possible through the addition of water, skim milk and gelatin. It shouldn't be substituted for regular butter or margarine in frying and baking. Storing butter: Because butter absorbs flavors like a sponge, it should be wrapped airtight for storage. Refrigerate regular butter for up to 1 month, unsalted butter for up to 2 weeks. Both can be frozen for up to 6 months. See also bercy (butter); beurre blanc; beurre manié; beurre noir; beurre noisette; butter substitutes; clarified butter; compound butter; fats and oils; garlic butter; ghee.


1. To smooth on plastic roofing cement or roofing adhesive with a trowel, as on a flashing.
2. To apply mortar as to a masonry unit, with a trowel.


butter, dairy product obtained by churning the fat from milk until it solidifies. In most areas the milk of cows is the basis, but elsewhere that of goats, sheep, and mares has been used. Butter was known by 2000 B.C., although in ancient times it was used less as food than as an ointment, medicine, or illuminating oil. At first it was churned in skin pouches thrown back and forth or swung over the back of trotting horses. Later, various hand churns were devised, including rotating, swinging, and rocking containers operated by plungers. Butter-making on the farm consists of allowing the milk to cool in pans, letting the cream rise to the top, skimming the cream off, and letting it ripen by natural fermentation; it is then churned. Exclusively farm-made until about 1850, butter has become increasingly a factory product. The centrifugal cream separator, introduced into the United States c.1880, and a method devised in 1890 by Stephen Moulton Babcock to determine the butterfat content of milk and cream gave impetus to large-scale production. The application of chemistry and bacteriology facilitates the making of butter of uniform quality. The percentage of fat extraction and the time required for churning depend on the composition of the butterfat (see fats and oils); the temperature, acidity, richness, and viscosity of the cream; the speed and motion of the churn; and the size of the fat globules. Commercial butter usually contains from 80% to 85% milk fat, from 12% to 16% water, and about 2% salt. Sweet, or unsalted, butter is favored in Europe, but other markets prefer at least 2% salt. Renovated or process butter is made from rancid or inferior butter, melted and refined, then rechurned. Whey butter, made from cream separated from whey, is usually oily and of inferior quality. The natural color of butter, derived from the carotene in green fodder, ranges from pale yellow to deep gold. The European Union, with France, Germany, and the Netherlands leading the way, is the world's leading butter producer, followed by the republics of the former Soviet Union, India, and the United States. The EC, New Zealand, and the United States are the chief exporters; and the republics of the former Soviet Union and Great Britain are heavy importers. Wisconsin, California, and Minnesota are the leading producers in the United States, with an output of 1.3 billion pounds of butter in 1991. Clarified butter, butterfat with the milk solids removed, is useful in cooking and has good keeping qualities. It is made in quantity in Egypt and in India, where it is known as ghee. The dietary value of butter is due to its large proportion of easily digested animal fat and to its vitamin A and vitamin D content. Consumption of butter has dropped, however, because the high animal fat content has been identified as a contributor to obesity and heart disease.


Butter is made by churning milk fat. It has a solid, waxy texture and varies in color from almost white to deep yellow. It is mostly made from cow's milk, but water buffalo milk is used in the Indian subcontinent, yak milk in the Himalayas, and sheep milk in central Asia. Butter is an important food in North America, Europe, and western and central Asia but is of lesser importance in the rest of the world.

Butter Making

Until the late nineteenth century, butter was made by traditional small-scale methods. Milk was "set" in bowls until the cream rose and could be skimmed off. It was used fresh for sweet cream butter or "ripened" (soured) as the bacteria it contained converted the lactose (milk sugar) to lactic acid. Sometimes clotted (scalded) cream was used, and milk fat retrieved from whey after cheese making can also be used for making butter.

Once or twice a week the cream was churned in a standing churn with a plunger or in a barrel turned end-over-end. Eventually, granules of butter separated out, leaving buttermilk, which was drained off and used for drinking and baking. The butter was washed and worked (kneaded with a paddle) to get rid of excess liquid, then salted. Butter-making implements were wooden; they included bowls, butter paddles, and prints carved with motifs, such as swans or wheat ears, used to stamp finished pats.

In modern industrial manufacture, cream is separated by a centrifugal process to give a fat content of 30 to 38 percent. It is always pasteurized, and ripening is induced by adding a bacterial culture. The cream is churned at a temperature of 53 to 64°F (12 to 18°C). High-speed continuous churns were introduced after World War II. In these the cream is mixed by revolving blades, which induces granulation quickly. The butter granules are forced through a perforated plate and are worked mechanically. Salt and annatto (coloring) are added if desired. About twenty liters of milk are needed to make one kilogram of butter.

Physical Descriptions

The mechanism of butter production is not fully understood. The process inverts cream, an emulsion of minute fat globules dispersed in a liquid phase (water), to become butter, an emulsion in which minute drops of liquid are dispersed in a solid phase (fat). Churning first traps air in the cream, producing a foam. Continued agitation destabilizes the fat globules, disrupting the fine membranes that surround them and releasing naturally occurring emulsifiers such as lecithin. As agitation continues, the foam collapses, and the fat droplets are forced together in grains. Gradually they increase in size and become visible.

Finished butter has a complex structure of minute water droplets, air bubbles, and fat crystals distributed through amorphous fat. Proportions of solid and liquid fats present in butter vary. A lower churning temperature increases the proportion of crystalline fats, giving a harder, almost crumbly product. Higher temperatures produce a softer butter. Butter can also be whipped after churning to make it softer and easier to spread. Flavor is influenced by many factors (see sidebar).

Salt was originally added as a preservative. Butter made from unpasteurized milk is susceptible to bacterial spoilage. Even under modern conditions of hygiene, it is susceptible to oxidative rancidity. One way of extending shelf life is clarification, which includes two basic methods. One is to melt the butter gently and pour the fat off, discarding the milky residue. The second, used in India, is to simmer the butter until the water evaporates and the protein and milk sugar form a solid brown deposit. The fat, now with a nutty flavor, is strained off and stored as ghee, which keeps for months. Butter and ghee are significant in Indian cookery and Hindu religious ritual. In the Arab world samneh, a form of clarified butter, is also used for cookery. In Morocco it is mixed with herbs to make smen, a strongly flavored aged butter.

Nutrition

Nutritionally the composition of butter is roughly 80 percent fat (mostly saturated), 12 percent water, 2 to 3 percent nonfat milk solids (lactose, protein), and 2 percent added salt. It is the most concentrated of dairy products, containing about 740 kilocalories per 100 grams (210 kilocalories per ounce). Butter is a valuable source of vitamin A, plus it has a little vitamin D. It is also a source of dietary cholesterol. Vitamin content is higher in summer, when the cattle feed on fresh grass.

Nutritional debates over saturated fatty acids and cholesterol in relation to coronary heart disease have centered on butter. High fat consumption can be related to raised blood lipids, but the relationship of dietary cholesterol to blood cholesterol is less easy to demonstrate. Evidence for or against is seized in the debate between butter and margarine manufacturers over which is superior. The two groups have competed since margarine was invented in the 1870s. Their arguments were originally couched in terms of economics but subsequently obscured important health issues. In the United States butter consumption stands at about 500,000 metric tons per annum, as opposed to the European Union, which consumes almost 1.5 million tons with only about one-third more population than the United States. Much of the difference is probably due to preferential consumption of margarine for perceived health benefits by U.S. consumers.

Development of Production

Annual world production of butter (including ghee) rose from about 5.35 million metric tons in 1961 to about 7.551 million metric tons in 2001, during which time the ation doubled. By the twenty-first century, India was the world's largest butter and ghee producer. Its production increased fivefold between 1961 and 2002, whereas the country's population increased about 2.25 times. The European Union, an area in which butter has enormous importance in traditional eating habits, is the next most important producer, followed by the United States. New Zealand, with a small population, produces much butter for export, but production in Canada, formerly an important exporter, has fallen.

Table 1

Butter and ghee production
  Year
Butter and ghee production (mt)19611971198119911998199920002001
World 5,344,948 5,712,823 6,846,762 7,230,231 6,842,943 6,991,151 7,201,428 7,551,093
Latin America & Caribbean 129,415 155,307 206,855 191,692 204,587 209,485 210,840 219,718
Canada 165,107 134,309 116,915 101,059 90,600 92,060 92,060 92,060
European Union (15) 1,825,529 1,916,890 2,396,300 1,931,824 1,794,111 1,768,090 1,738,656 1,730,629
India 433,000 432,000 670,300 1,050,000 1,600,000 1,750,000 1,950,000 2,250,000
Japan 13,214 47,699 63,636 75,922 88,931 85,349 87,578 82,000
New Zealand 213,500 230,800 247,200 250,881 343,658 317,000 344,000 384,000
United States 696,629 520,268 557,095 621,500 529,800 578,350 578,350 578,350
© Copyright FAO 1990–1998

Table 2

Butter imports
  Year
Butter imports—qty (mt)1961197119811991199819992000
World 566,571 786,113 1,524,808 1,333,061 1,214,011 1,213,135 1,256,727
Latin America & Caribbean 15,092 61,809 71,324 87,551 65,778 70,056 71,217
European Union (15) 467,074 527,783 705,015 615,223 657,293 668,492 698,404
Canada 0 1,399 28 164 3,275 5,820 14,477
India 100 2,951 18,675 3,192 4,311 10,255 6,535
Japan 376 923 1,734 20,524 565 548 391
New Zealand 0 11 27 14 822 500 652
United States 390 320 938 2,381 40,096 29,468 22,160
© Copyright FAO 1990–1998

Table 3

Butter exports
  Year
Butter exports—qty (mt)1961197119811991199819992000
World 629,535 842,045 1,473,373 1,364,364 1,322,174 1,301,421 1,311,496
Latin America & Caribbean 14,799 8,612 10,088 8,126 17,380 25,654 24,249
European Union (15) 260,405 446,090 1,087,809 983,892 718,992 692,079 660,345
Canada 3 2,029 61 12,415 12,077 10,932 6,711
India 7 181 240 340 909 1,700 1,815
Japan 10 1,108 313 3 0 17 7
New Zealand 165,690 194,463 203,058 176,148 315,850 298,034 358,528
United States 2,597 43,006 54,207 32,006 9,024 3,536 8,906
© Copyright FAO 1990–1998

The origins of butter are unknown. One theory is that migrating nomads discovered that milk they carried with them became butter (much as American pioneers made butter by allowing the motion of the wagons to churn milk as they traveled). Butter has been known in Eurasia since ancient times, although the classical Greeks regarded it as barbarian food. Later friction arose over Lenten food prohibitions by the church in medieval Europe. Oil, a southern staple, was allowed, but butter, derived from animals, was forbidden, creating difficulties for northerners who had to buy expensive imported oil or pay a fine to use butter.

In northern and western Europe, butter was an integral part of the pastoral economy. It was churned from surplus summer milk and was stored in wooden barrels. Butter production was women's work and in many places, such as early modern England, provided an income for farmer's wives, hence the frequency of Butter Market as a street name in English towns. Certain areas developed dairy food production as a specialty. By 1750 the Low Countries exported butter and cheese to neighboring regions. In Ireland butter is the most esteemed of all dairy products. In the Middle Ages it was used to pay taxes and was buried in peat bogs for preservation. Archeologists still find the occasional cache of "bog butter," which made Irish oat cake and later potatoes palatable. Migrants from the Low Countries, Britain, and Ireland took their taste for butter to North America, where observers remarked on the lavish use of it in cookery and at the table.

Creamery production of butter, in which milk collected from a large number of farms was taken to a central point for processing, began in the late nineteenth century. It gave benefits in economies of scale and quality control but reduced regional nuances. An important step toward the process was the introduction of a mechanical cream separator by Gustav de Laval in Denmark in the 1870s. In 1881 Alanson Slaughter built a creamery in Orange County, New York, using the milk produced by 375 cows. By 1900 a creamery in Vermont used the milk from thirty thousand cows to make over ten tons of butter a day, and the production of country butter declined rapidly. Canada and New Zealand developed butter as an export commodity for the British market. Most butter produced in the developed world is made in creameries.

Butter is important in European food habits and cuisines derived from them. It is used as a spread for bread, crackers, and toast and to dress cooked vegetables and pasta. In baking it adds flavor and shortness to cakes and some pastries. Butter has a privileged position in French cookery, especially in sauces, such as beurre blanc, hollandaise, and béarnaise. It is not ideal for frying as the protein it contains burns at about 250°F (120°C), but clarified butter can be heated to about 375°F (190°C) and is often used for shallow frying fish. Butter or ghee also gives character to northern Indian food. For instance, a small amount heated with spices is added to pulse dishes for richness and to finish the cooking process. In Tibet butter is floated on bowls of tea, the residues of which are mixed with tsampa (barley flour) and eaten.

Flavor in Butter

Flavor in butter is influenced by many factors. Two basic types exist in European and North American tradition: sweet cream, churned from fresh cream, with a mild, creamy flavor and ripened; or lactic butter, made from soured cream, which should have a fuller, slightly nutty flavor. Salt butter can be of either type. Regional tastes in this vary widely. In Europe, Welsh butter is noted for being very salty, whereas French butter is often not salted at all. Under modern conditions, salt is only added for flavor, its original preservative function now obsolete.

The characteristic butter flavor comes partly from the high proportion of short-chain fatty acids milk fat contains, especially butyric acid. Ripening gives a "lactic" flavor derived principally from a substance called diacetyl, produced by the bacterial species involved. In the United States, most butter has a mild lactic flavor, although it is stronger in "cultured" butter, which is closer to that produced in Germany and central Europe, where strongly flavored butters are preferred.

Differences in butter flavor were far more apparent in the past. Factors that influenced the flavor of farm-made butter included the food the cattle ate. Turnips, introduced as a fodder crop in eighteenth-century England, were notorious for giving a characteristic and much-disliked taint to butter. Some pastures, such as those of Normandy, are recognized as producing excellently flavored butter. Poor storage conditions for milk or butter also led to taints, as fats pick up odors quickly. Storage in rooms that also contained, for instance, onions was not recommended. Care during handling is also important. Length of ripening time, hygienic handling, and complete expression of the buttermilk from the finished product influence flavor.

Finally, from the moment it is finished, butter is susceptible to rancidity of two types. Hydrolitic rancidity is produced by the presence of moisture and is hastened by enzymes and microorganisms, and consumers have developed a taste for some forms. Oxidative rancidity, produced by reaction with oxygen in the air, is found unacceptable by everyone.

Bibliography

Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999.

Garard, Ira D. The Story of Food. Westport, Conn.: AVI Publishing, 1974.

McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1984; New York: Scribners, 1984.

Visser, Margaret. Much Depends on Dinner. London: Penguin Books, 1986.

—Laura Mason

Nutritional Values:

The Nutritional Value for: butter

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Description Quantity Energy
(calories)
Carbs
(grams)
Protein
(grams)
Cholesterol
(milligrams)
Weight
(grams)
Fat
(grams)
Saturated Fat
(grams)
salted 1 PAT 35 0 0 11 5 4 2.5
salted 1 tbsp 100 0 0 31 14 11 7.1
salted 1/2 cup 810 0 1 247 113 92 57.1
unsalted 1 PAT 35 0 0 11 5 4 2.5
unsalted 1 tbsp 100 0 0 31 14 11 7.1
unsalted 1/2 cup 810 0 1 247 113 92 57.1
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: n. - An edible emulsion of fat globules made by churning milk or cream; A fighter who strikes the opponent with his head. v. - Spread butter on.

pronunciation All is fish that comes to the literary net. Goethe puts his joys and sorrows into poems, I turn my adventures into bread and butter. — Louisa May Alcott, Source: Jou.

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sign description: The U-hand makes a double swipe on the palm of the opposite hand.




butters
adjective   British, slang (of a person) very ugly [ perhaps shortened from 'butt ugly']
And what of the ghastly phrase by which teenage boys refer to an ugly girl. No longer is she 'manky' or 'a minger', apparently. No, now she's 'butters'. Pronounced 'bu'ers', of course (The Times)

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A flavorful product made by churning cream until it thickens and then separates. The beating enables fat globules to coalesce producing a liquid known as buttermilk to separate. The buttermilk is removed, and salt or coloring can then be added to the "butter" at this point. The butter is then churned and packaged. Springtime develops the best-flavored butter due to the cow's diet during this season. Roux made from butter and flour is a flavorful product. The two types of butter are lactic butter and sweet cream butter. Sweet cream butter is aged in a cream-aging tank for around 12 hours. It is not soured like lactic butter. Lactic butter has a lactic acid producing culture added to the cream before churning. Butter is mostly made from separated cream, usually soured to better hold up to its conditions. Organisms that are involved in the process are Streptococus lactis, S. cremoris, Leuconostoc citrovorum, and L. dextranicum. Butter oil is made from whole milk or fresh pasteurized cream. Cream that contains about 35% butterfat is further concentrated by phase inversion to 99.6% fat and then further dried down to the 99.9% fat level. See Butter Starter Distillate, Starter Cultures, Roux.

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to butter, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Butter.
Butter at the Borough Market, London
Fresh butter for sale at a farmer's market in the Czech Republic

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water.

Most frequently made from cows' milk, butter can also be manufactured from the milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks. Salt, flavorings and preservatives are sometimes added to butter. Rendering butter produces clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat.

Butter is a water-in-oil emulsion resulting from an inversion of the cream, an oil-in-water emulsion; the milk proteins are the emulsifiers. Butter remains a solid when refrigerated, but softens to a spreadable consistency at room temperature, and melts to a thin liquid consistency at 32–35 °C (90–95 °F). The density of butter is 911 g/L (56.9 lb/ft3).[1]

It generally has a pale yellow color, but varies from deep yellow to nearly white. Its unmodified color is dependent on the animals' feed and is commonly manipulated with food colorings in the commercial manufacturing process, most commonly annatto or carotene.

Contents

Etymology

Butter is often served for spreading on bread with a butter knife.

The word butter derives (via Germanic languages) from the Latin butyrum,[2] which is the latinisation of the Greek βούτυρον (bouturon).[3][4] This may have been a construction meaning "cow-cheese", from βοῦς (bous), "ox, cow"[5] + τυρός (turos), "cheese",[6] but perhaps this is a false etymology of a Scythian word.[7] Nevertheless, the earliest attested form of the second stem, turos ("cheese"), is the Mycenaean Greek tu-ro, written in Linear B syllabic script.[8] The root word persists in the name butyric acid, a compound found in rancid butter and dairy products such as Parmesan cheese.

In general use, the term "butter" refers to the spread dairy product when unqualified by other descriptors. The word commonly is used to describe puréed vegetable or nut products such as peanut butter and almond butter. It is often applied to spread fruit products such as apple butter. Fats such as cocoa butter and shea butter that remain solid at room temperature are also known as "butters". In addition to the act of applying butter being called "to butter", non-dairy items that have a dairy butter consistency may use "butter' to call that consistency to mind, including food items such as maple butter and witch's butter and nonfood items such as baby bottom butter, hyena butter, and rock butter.

Production

Churning cream into butter using a hand held mixer

Unhomogenized milk and cream contain butterfat in microscopic globules. These globules are surrounded by membranes made of phospholipids (fatty acid emulsifiers) and proteins, which prevent the fat in milk from pooling together into a single mass. 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. Variations in the production method will create butters with different consistencies, mostly due to the butterfat composition in the finished product. 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; butters with many crystals are harder than butters dominated by free fats.

Churning produces small butter grains floating in the water-based portion of the cream. This watery liquid is called buttermilk—although the buttermilk most common today is instead a directly fermented skimmed milk. The buttermilk is drained off; sometimes more buttermilk is removed by rinsing the grains with water. Then the grains are "worked": pressed and kneaded together. When prepared manually, this is done using wooden boards called scotch hands. This consolidates the butter into a solid mass and breaks up embedded pockets of buttermilk or water into tiny droplets.

Butter is mainly a triglyceride (fat) derived from fatty acids such as myristic, palmitic, and oleic acids

Commercial butter is about 80% butterfat and 15% water; traditionally made butter may have as little as 65% fat and 30% water. Butterfat is a mixture of triglyceride, a triester derived from glycerol and three of any of several fatty acid groups.[9] Butter becomes rancid when these chains break down into smaller components, like butyric acid and diacetyl. The density of butter is 0.911 g/cm3 (0.527 oz/in3), about the same as ice.

Types

Hand-made butter
Chart of milk products and production relationships, including milk

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. During fermentation, the cream naturally sours as bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid. The fermentation process produces additional aroma compounds, including diacetyl, which makes for a fuller-flavored and more "buttery" tasting product.[10] 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 early 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 method to make an artificial simulation of cultured butter is to add lactic acid and flavor compounds directly to the fresh-cream butter; while this more efficient process is claimed to simulate the taste of cultured butter, the product produced is not cultured but is instead flavored.

When heated, butter quickly melts into a thin liquid.

Dairy products are often pasteurized during production to kill pathogenic bacteria and other microbes. 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.[11] Butter made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream is called raw cream butter. While butter made from pasteurized cream may keep for several months, raw cream butter has a shelf life of roughly ten days.

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. Commercial raw cream butter is virtually unheard-of in the United States. Raw cream butter is generally only found made at home by consumers who have purchased raw whole milk directly from dairy farmers, skimmed the cream themselves, and made butter with it. It is rare in Europe as well.[12]

Several "spreadable" butters have been developed; these remain softer at colder temperatures and are therefore easier to use directly out of refrigeration. 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. "Whipped" butter, another product designed to be more spreadable, is aerated via the incorporation of nitrogen gas—normal air is not used, because doing so would encourage oxidation and rancidity.

All categories of butter are sold in both salted and unsalted forms. Either granular salt or a strong brine are added to salted butter during processing. In addition to enhanced flavor, the addition of salt acts as a preservative.

The amount of butterfat in the finished product is a vital aspect of production. In the United States, products sold as "butter" are required to contain a minimum of 80% butterfat; in practice, most American butters contain only slightly more than that, averaging around 81% butterfat. European butters generally have a higher ratio, which may extend up to 85%.

Clarified butter

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; after settling, the remaining components separate by density. At the top, whey proteins form a skin which is removed, and the resulting butterfat is then poured off from the mixture of water and casein proteins that settle to the bottom.[13]

Ghee is clarified butter which is brought to higher temperatures of around 120 °C (250 °F) once the water has cooked off, allowing the milk solids to brown. This process flavors the ghee, and also produces antioxidants which help protect it longer from rancidity. Because of this, ghee can keep for six to eight months under normal conditions.[13]

Cream may be skimmed from whey instead of milk, as a byproduct of cheese-making. Whey butter may be made from whey cream. Whey cream and butter have a lower fat content and taste more salty, tangy and "cheesy".[14] They are also cheaper than "sweet" cream and butter.

European butters

There are several butters produced in Europe with Protected geographical indications; these include:

History

Traditional butter-making in Palestine. Ancient techniques were still practiced in the early 20th century. National Geographic, March 1914.

The earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat's milk; cattle are not thought to have been domesticated for another thousand years.[15] An ancient method of butter making, still used today in parts of Africa and the Near East, involves a goat skin half filled with milk, and inflated with air before being sealed. The skin is then hung with ropes on a tripod of sticks, and rocked until the movement leads to the formation of butter.

In the Mediterranean climate, unclarified butter spoils quickly— unlike cheese, it is not a practical method of preserving the nutrients of milk. The ancient Greeks and Romans seemed to have considered butter a food fit more for the northern barbarians. A play by the Greek comic poet Anaxandrides refers to Thracians as boutyrophagoi, "butter-eaters".[16] In Natural History, Pliny the Elder calls butter "the most delicate of food among barbarous nations", and goes on to describe its medicinal properties.[17] Later, the physician Galen also described butter as a medicinal agent only.[18]

Historian and linguist Andrew Dalby says most references to butter in ancient Near Eastern texts should more correctly be translated as ghee. Ghee is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as a typical trade article around the first century CE Arabian Sea, and Roman geographer Strabo describes it as a commodity of Arabia and Sudan.[16] In India, ghee has been a symbol of purity and an offering to the gods—especially Agni, the Hindu god of fire—for more than 3000 years; references to ghee's sacred nature appear numerous times in the Rigveda, circa 1500–1200 BCE. The tale of the child Krishna stealing butter remains a popular children's story in India today. Since India's prehistory, ghee has been both a staple food and used for ceremonial purposes, such as fueling holy lamps and funeral pyres.

Middle Ages

Woman churning butter; Compost et Kalendrier des Bergères, Paris, 1499

The cooler climates of northern Europe allowed butter to be stored for a longer period before it spoiled. Scandinavia has the oldest tradition in Europe of butter export trade, dating at least to the 12th century.[19] After the fall of Rome and through much of the Middle Ages, butter was a common food across most of Europe, but one with a low reputation, and was consumed principally by peasants. Butter slowly became more accepted by the upper class, notably when the early 16th century Roman Catholic Church allowed its consumption during Lent. Bread and butter became common fare among the middle class, and the English, in particular, gained a reputation for their liberal use of melted butter as a sauce with meat and vegetables.[20]

In antiquity, butter was used for fuel in lamps as a substitute for oil. The Butter Tower of Rouen Cathedral was erected in the early 16th century when Archbishop Georges d'Amboise authorized the burning of butter instead of oil, which was scarce at the time, during Lent.[21]

Across northern Europe, butter was sometimes treated in a manner unheard-of today: it was packed into barrels (firkins) and buried in peat bogs, perhaps for years. 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. Firkins of such buried butter are a common archaeological find in Ireland; the Irish National Museum has some containing "a grayish cheese-like substance, partially hardened, not much like butter, and quite free from putrefaction." The practice was most common in Ireland in the 11th–14th centuries; it ended entirely before the 19th century.[19]

Industrialization

Like Ireland, France became well known for its butter, particularly in Normandy and Brittany. 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. A French chemist claimed the prize with the invention of margarine in 1869. The first margarine was beef tallow flavored with milk and worked like butter; vegetable margarine followed after the development of hydrogenated oils around 1900.

Gustaf de Laval's centrifugal cream separator sped the butter-making process.

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. In the late 1870s, the centrifugal cream separator was introduced, marketed most successfully by Swedish engineer Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval.[22] This dramatically sped up the butter-making process by eliminating the slow step of letting cream naturally rise to the top of milk. Initially, whole milk was shipped to the butter factories, and the cream separation took place there. Soon, though, cream-separation technology became small and inexpensive enough to introduce an additional efficiency: the separation was accomplished on the farm, and the cream alone shipped to the factory. By 1900, more than half the butter produced in the United States was factory made; Europe followed suit shortly after.

butter press and small churn

In 1920, Otto Hunziker authored The Butter Industry, Prepared for Factory, School and Laboratory,[23] a well-known text in the industry that enjoyed at least three editions (1920, 1927, 1940). As part of the efforts of the American Dairy Science Association, Professor Hunziker and others published articles regarding: causes of tallowiness[24] (an odor defect, distinct from rancidity, a taste defect); mottles[25] (an aesthetic issue related to uneven color); introduced salts;[26] the impact of creamery metals[27] and liquids;[28] and acidity measurement.[29] These and other ADSA publications helped standardize practices internationally.

Butter also served as a source of extra income for farm families. Wood presses featuring intricate decoration were used to press the butter into pucks or small bricks to be sold at a nearby market or general store with the decoration identifying the farm which produced the butter. This continued until production was mechanized and butter was produced in less decorative stick form.[30] Today butter presses continue to be used for decorative purposes.

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,[31] and it is still the case today that more margarine than butter is eaten in the U.S. and the EU.[32]

Size and shape of butter packaging

Western-pack shape butter

In the United States, butter is usually produced in 4-ounce sticks, wrapped in waxed or foiled paper and sold four to a one-pound carton. This practice is believed to have originated in 1907, when Swift and Company began packaging butter in this manner for mass distribution.[33]

Due to historical differences in butter printers (the machines which cut and package butter),[34] these sticks are commonly produced in two different shapes:

  • The dominant shape east of the Rocky Mountains is the Elgin, or Eastern-pack shape, named for a dairy in Elgin, Illinois. The sticks are 121 millimetres (4.8 in) long and 32 millimetres (1.3 in) wide and are typically sold stacked two by two in elongated cube-shaped boxes.[34]
  • West of the Rocky Mountains, butter printers standardized on a different shape that is now referred to as the Western-pack shape. These butter sticks are 80 millimetres (3.1 in) long and 38 millimetres (1.5 in) wide and are usually sold with four sticks packed side-by-side in a flat, rectangular box.[34]

Both sticks contain the same amount of butter, although most butter dishes are designed for Elgin-style butter sticks.[34]

The stick's wrapper is usually marked off as eight tablespoons (120 ml/4.2 imp fl oz; 4.1 US fl oz); the actual volume of one stick is approximately nine tablespoons (130 ml/4.6 imp fl oz; 4.4 US fl oz).

Elsewhere (outside the United States), butter is packaged and sold by weight only, not by volume (fluid measure) nor by unit (stick), but the package shape remains approximately the same. The wrapper is usually a foil and waxed-paper laminate (the waxed paper is now a siliconised substitute, but is still referred to in some places as parchment, from the wrapping used in past centuries; and the term 'parchment-wrapped' is still employed where the paper alone is used, without the foil laminate).

In the UK and Ireland, and in some other regions historically accustomed to using British measures, this was traditionally ½lb and 1 lb packs; since metrication, the pack sizes have remained the same because of consumer resistance, but they are labelled as 227g and 454g because EU food labelling law requires the use of metric units. In cooking (recipes), butter is specified and measured by weight only (grams or ounces); although melted butter could be measured by fluid measure (centiliters or fluid ounces), this is rare.

In the remainder of the metricated world, butter is packed and sold in 250g and 500g packs (roughly equivalent to the ½lb and 1 lb measures) and measured for cooking in grams or kilograms.

Butter for commercial and industrial use is packaged in plastic buckets, tubs, or drums, in quantities and units suited to the local market.

In regions where the ambient temperature precludes the unrefrigerated used of butter, it may be available preserved in tins.

Worldwide

In 1997, India produced 1,470,000 metric tons (1,620,000 short tons) of butter, most of which was consumed domestically.[35] Second in production was the United States (522,000 t/575,000 short tons), followed by France (466,000 t/514,000 short tons), Germany (442,000 t/487,000 short tons), and New Zealand (307,000 t/338,000 short tons). France ranks first in per capita butter consumption with 8 kg per capita per year.[36] In terms of absolute consumption, Germany was second after India, using 578,000 metric tons (637,000 short tons) of butter in 1997, followed by France (528,000 t/582,000 short tons), Russia (514,000 t/567,000 short tons), and the United States (505,000 t/557,000 short tons). New Zealand, Australia, and the Ukraine are among the few nations that export a significant percentage of the butter they produce.[37]

Different varieties are found around the world. Smen is a spiced Moroccan clarified butter, buried in the ground and aged for months or years. Yak butter is important in Tibet; tsampa, barley flour mixed with yak butter, is a staple food. Butter tea is consumed in the Himalayan regions of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and India. 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.[38]

Storage and cooking

Butter curls created with a butter curler

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.[39] Keeping butter tightly wrapped delays rancidity, which is hastened by exposure to light or air, and also helps prevent it from picking up other odors. Wrapped butter has a shelf life of several months at refrigerator temperatures.[citation needed]

"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. Usually the dish holds just enough water to submerge the interior lip when the dish is closed. Butter is packed into the lid. The water acts as a seal to keep the butter fresh, and also keeps the butter from overheating in hot temperatures. This allows butter to be safely stored on the countertop for several days without spoilage.

Once butter is softened, spices, herbs, or other flavoring agents can be mixed into it, producing what is called a compound butter or composite butter (sometimes also called composed butter). Compound butters can be used as spreads, or cooled, sliced, and placed onto hot food to melt into a sauce. Sweetened compound butters can be served with desserts; such hard sauces are often flavored with spirits.

Hollandaise sauce served over white asparagus and potatoes.

Melted butter plays an important role in the preparation of sauces, most obviously in French cuisine. Beurre noisette (hazelnut butter) and Beurre noir (black butter) are sauces of melted butter cooked until the milk solids and sugars have turned golden or dark brown; they are often finished with an addition of vinegar or lemon juice. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are emulsions of egg yolk and melted butter; they are in essence mayonnaises made with butter instead of oil. 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 melted but still emulsified butter; 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.[40]

Mixing melted butter with chocolate to make a brownie

In Poland, the butter lamb (Baranek wielkanocny) is a traditional addition to the Easter Meal for many Polish Catholics. Butter is shaped into a lamb either by hand or in a lamb-shaped mould. Butter is also used to make edible decorations to garnish other dishes

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 smoke point of butterfat is around 200 °C (400 °F), so clarified butter or ghee is better suited to frying.[13] Ghee has always been a common frying medium in India, where many avoid other animal fats for cultural or religious reasons.

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. The tiny bubbles locked within the butter expand in the heat of baking and aerate the cookie or cake. Some cookies like shortbread may have no other source of moisture but the water in the butter. Pastries like pie dough incorporate pieces of solid fat into the dough, which become flat layers of fat when the dough is rolled out. During baking, the fat melts away, leaving a flaky texture. 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. Pastry makers often chill all their ingredients and utensils while working with a butter dough.

Butter also has many non-culinary, traditional uses which are specific to certain cultures. For instance, in North America, applying butter to the handle of a door is a common prank on April Fools' Day.

Health and nutrition

Young woman wearing a crown watching a middle aged woman sculpting her image in a 90 pound block of butter
At the Minnesota State Fair for about 40 years to promote butter over margarine, Linda Christensen has sculpted each Princess Kay of the Milky Way in butter.[41]
Butter, unsalted
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 2,999 kJ (717 kcal)
Carbohydrates 0 g
Fat 81 g
- saturated 51 g
- monounsaturated 21 g
- polyunsaturated 3 g
Protein 1 g
Vitamin A equiv. 684 μg (86%)
Vitamin D 60 IU (10%)
Vitamin E 2.32 mg (15%)
Cholesterol 215 mg
Fat percentage can vary.
See also Types of butter.
Percentages are relative to
US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient Database

According to USDA figures, one tablespoon of butter (14 grams / 0.5 ounces) contains 420 kilojoules (100 kcal), all from fat, 11 grams (0.4 oz) of fat, of which 7 grams (0.25 oz) are saturated fat, and 30 milligrams (0.46 gr) of cholesterol.[42]

Commercial butter-making is a carefully controlled operation.

Butter is considered unhealthy[by whom?] unless consumed in moderation, due to consisting of 63% saturated fat and containing high levels of cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. Margarine has been recommended as a substitute[by whom?], since it is higher in unsaturated fat and contains little or no cholesterol, though it may have higher trans fats instead.[43]

Proponents of the consumption of butter, such as the nutritionist Mary Enig, state that butter is nutritious, "rich in short and medium chain fatty acids" and can have a positive effect on health and prevent disease.[44] It is a good source of Vitamin A.

As butter is essentially just the milk fat, it contains only traces of lactose, so moderate consumption of butter is not a problem for the lactose intolerant.[45] People with milk allergies still need to avoid butter, which contains enough of the allergy-causing proteins to cause reactions.[46]

Butter may play a useful role in dieting by providing satiety. A small amount added to low fat foods such as vegetables may ward off feelings of hunger.[44]

Comparative properties of common cooking fats (per 100g)
Total Fat Saturated Fat Monounsaturated Fat Polyunsaturated Fat Smoke Point
Sunflower oil 100g 11g 20g 69g 225 °C (437 °F)[a]
Soybean oil 100g 16g 23g 58g 257 °C (495 °F)[a]
Olive oil 100g 14g 73g 11g 190 °C (374 °F)[a]
Corn oil 100g 15g 30g 55g 230 °C (446 °F)[a]
Peanut oil 100g 17g 46g 32g 225 °C (437 °F)[a]
Vegetable Shortening (hydrogenated) 71g 23g (34%) 8g (11%) 37g (52%) 165 °C (329 °F)[a]
Lard 100g 39g 45g 11g 190 °C (374 °F)[a]
Suet 94g 52g (55%) 32g (34%) 3g (3%) 200°C (400°F)
Butter 81g 51g (63%) 21g (26%) 3g (4%) 150 °C (302 °F)[a]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h The Culinary Institute of America (2011). The Professional Chef. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-470-42135-5. 

Notes

  1. ^ Elert, Glenn. "Density". The Physics Hypertextbook. http://hypertextbook.com/physics/matter/density/. 
  2. ^ butyrum, Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, on Perseus
  3. ^ βούτυρον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  4. ^ butter, Oxford Dictionaries
  5. ^ βοῦς, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  6. ^ τυρός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  7. ^ Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary entry for butter. Retrieved 27 November 2005.
  8. ^ Palaeolexicon, Word study tool of ancient languages
  9. ^ Rolf Jost "Milk and Dairy Products" Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2002. doi:10.1002/14356007.a16_589.pub3
  10. ^ McGee p. 35.
  11. ^ McGee p. 33.
  12. ^ McGee p. 34.
  13. ^ a b c McGee p. 37.
  14. ^ Article on sweet cream, whey cream, and the butters they produce
  15. ^ Dates from McGee p. 10.
  16. ^ a b Dalby p. 65.
  17. ^ Bostock and Riley translation. Book 28, chapter 35.
  18. ^ Galen. de aliment. facult.
  19. ^ a b Web Exhibits: Butter. Ancient Firkins.
  20. ^ McGee p. 33, "Ancient, Once Unfashionable".
  21. ^ Soyer, Alexis (1977) [1853]. The Pantropheon or a History of Food and its Preparation in Ancient Times. Wisbech, Cambs.: Paddington Press. p. 172. ISBN 0-448-22976-5. 
  22. ^ Edwards, Everett E. "Europe's Contribution to the American Dairy Industry". The Journal of Economic History, Volume 9, 1949. 72-84.
  23. ^ Hunziker, O F (1920). The Butter Industry, Prepared for Factory, School and Laboratory. LaGrange, IL: author. 
  24. ^ Hunziker, O F; D. Fay Hosman (1 November 1917). "Tallowy Butter—its Causes and Prevention" (PDF). Journal of Dairy Science (American Dairy Science Association) 1 (4): 320–346. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(17)94386-3. http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/1/4/320. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
  25. ^ Hunziker, O F; D. Fay Hosman (1 March 1920). "Mottles in Butter—Their Causes and Prevention" (PDF). Journal of Dairy Science (American Dairy Science Association) 3 (2): 77–106. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(20)94253-4. http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/3/2/77. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
  26. ^ Hunziker, O F; W. A. Cordes; B. H. Nissen (1 September 1929). "Studies on Butter Salts" (PDF). Journal of Dairy Science (American Dairy Science Association) 11 (5): 333–351. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(28)93647-4. http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/11/5/333. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
  27. ^ Hunziker, O F; W. A. Cordes; B. H. Nissen (1 March 1929). "Metals in Dairy Equipment. Metallic Corrosion in Milk Products and its Effect on Flavor" (PDF). Journal of Dairy Science (American Dairy Science Association) 12 (2): 140–181. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(29)93566-9. http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/12/2/140. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
  28. ^ Hunziker, O F; W. A. Cordes; B. H. Nissen (1 May 1929). "Metals in Dairy Equipment: Corrosion Caused by Washing Powders, Chemical Sterilizers, and Refrigerating Brines" (PDF). Journal of Dairy Science (American Dairy Science Association) 12 (3): 252–284. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(29)93575-X. http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/12/3/252. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
  29. ^ Hunziker, O F; W. A. Cordes; B. H. Nissen (1 July 1931). "Method for Hydrogen Ion Determination of Butter" (PDF). Journal of Dairy Science (American Dairy Science Association) 14 (4): 347–37. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(31)93478-4. http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/14/4/347. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
  30. ^ Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell (1857). Mrs. Hale's new cook book. 
  31. ^ Web Exhibits: Butter. Eating less butter, and more fat.
  32. ^ See for example this chart from International Margarine Association of the Countries of Europe statistics. Retrieved 4 December 2005.
  33. ^ Milton E. Parker (1948) (PDF). Princely Packets of Golden Health (A History of Butter Packaging). http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/research/butter.pdf. Retrieved 2006-10-15. 
  34. ^ a b c d "A Better Stick of Butter?". Cook's Illustrated (77): 3. November & December 2005 
  35. ^ Most nations produce and consume the bulk of their butter domestically.
  36. ^ http://envoye-special.france2.fr/index-fr.php?page=reportage&id_rubrique=1496
  37. ^ Statistics from USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (1999). Dairy: Word Markets and Trade. Retrieved 1 December 2005. The export and import figures do not include trade between nations within the European Union, and there are inconsistencies regarding the inclusion of clarified butterfat products (explaining why New Zealand is shown exporting more butter in 1997 than was produced).
  38. ^ Crawford et al., part B, section III, ch. 1: Butter. Retrieved 28 November 2005.
  39. ^ Bring back butter conditioners. Retrieved 27 November 2005. The feature has been phased out for energy conservation reasons.
  40. ^ Sauce information from McGee, pp. 36 (beurre noisette and beurre noir), 632 (beurre blanc and beurre monté), and 635–636 (hollandaise and béarnaise).
  41. ^ Mincer, Jilian (August 26, 2010). "When It Comes to Butter Carving, There's No Margarine for Error". The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703632304575452170074537604.html. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  42. ^ Data from nutritiondata.com. Retrieved 27 November 2005.
  43. ^ Q&A about Saturated Fat, Trans Fat, and Cholesterol from the (U.S.) National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (2005). Retrieved 15 April 2006.
  44. ^ a b "Why Butter Is Better". Does butter cause disease? On the contrary, butter protects us against many diseases. The Weston A. Price Foundation. http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/519-why-butter-is-better.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23.  "Why Butter is Better" first appeared in Health Freedom News, 1999 Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD.
  45. ^ From data here [1], one teaspoon of butter contains 0.03 grams of lactose; a cup of milk contains 400 times that amount.
  46. ^ Allergy Society of South Africa. Milk Allergy & Intolerance. Retrieved 27 November 2005.

References

External links


Top

Dansk (Danish)
n. - smør
v. tr. - smøre, tilberede med smør

idioms:

  • butter bean    voksbønne, hvid limabønne
  • butter up    fedte for, smigre

Nederlands (Dutch)
boter, roomboter, gevlei, beboteren

Français (French)
n. - beurre
v. tr. - mettre du beurre dans, beurrer

idioms:

  • butter bean    (GB) gros haricot blanc
  • butter up    (GB) passer de la pommade à

Deutsch (German)
n. - Butter
v. - mit Butter bestreichen

idioms:

  • butter bean    (bot.) Gartenbohne, (bot.) Limabohne
  • butter up    schmeicheln

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - βούτυρο, (μτφ.) κολακείες
v. - βουτυρώνω, αλείφω με βούτυρο

idioms:

  • butter bean    φασόλι της Λίμας
  • butter up    (καθομ.) καλοπιάνω, κολακεύω

Italiano (Italian)
burro

idioms:

  • butter bean    fagiolo di Lima
  • butter up    lusingare

Português (Portuguese)
n. - manteiga (f)
v. - passar manteiga

idioms:

  • butter bean    feijão-manteiga (m) (Bot.), feijão-de-lima (m) (Bot.)
  • butter up    adular

Русский (Russian)
масло, мазать маслом

idioms:

  • butter bean    каролинский боб
  • butter up    умасливать

Español (Spanish)
n. - mantequilla, manteca de vaca
v. tr. - enmantecar, untar con manteca

idioms:

  • butter bean    habichuela verde, alubia, haba
  • butter up    halagar, adular, congraciarse con, lisonjear

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - smör
v. - bre smör på, steka i smör, smöra

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
奶油, 黄油, 涂奶油于, 以奶油调味, 以花言巧语讨好

idioms:

  • butter bean    棉豆, 利马豆
  • butter up    巴结

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 奶油, 黃油
v. tr. - 塗奶油於, 以奶油調味, 以花言巧語討好

idioms:

  • butter bean    棉豆, 利馬豆
  • butter up    巴結

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 버터, 아부
v. tr. - ~에 버터를 바르다, ~에 아부하다

idioms:

  • butter up    아첨하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - バター, バターに似たもの, おべっか
v. - バターを塗る, おべっかを使う

idioms:

  • butter bean    ライマメ, インゲンマメ
  • butter up    へつらう

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) زبدة, زبد (فعل) دهن بالزبدة, وضع الزبدة على‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חמאה‬
v. tr. - ‮מרח בחמאה‬


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