BUTTER and FAT

A fatty substance obtained from churned cream, containing at least 80% fat, 2% milk solids, and not more than 16% water. It is washed and blended to make it smooth. BUTTER hardens at low temperatures and melts when heated. The color varies from creamy white to golden yellow; according to the diet of the dairy cows (pasture rich in CAROTENE gives the yellow color).

THE HISTORY of BUTTER

BUTTER was known in ancient times and was introduced to the Greeks by the Scyhtians. Herodutus, quoted by Montesquieu, spoke of Scyhians who pocked out the eyes of their slaves so that nothing would distract them from churning their milk. The Greek and Romans, however, used the it mainly as a remedy (particularly for healing wounds) and relied almost entirely on oil for cooking purposes. BUTTER was produced by Gauls, but it was the Normans, using knowledge acquired from the Danes, who firmly established the reputation of this product in their own country. By the Middle Ages, the small-scale local production of BUTTER had become widespread. Large pats of BUTTER, sometimes wrapped in leaves of SORREL or herbs, were sold at the markets and stored in earthenware pots covered in salt water. Coloring (with MARIGOLD flowers) was prohibited, as well selling BUTTER on a fish stall. BUTTER was not supposed to be eaten during Lent, but a dispensation could be obtained by making a contribution to the BUTTER CHEST.

BUTTER and DIETETICS

BUTTER is very rich natural food with a high-energy value (750Cal per 100 g, which is less than oil or lard); it is SATURED FAT containing vitamins A and D, CALCIUM, and PHOSPHORUS (lighter BUTTERS are now on the market with 25% fat content). It decomposes at 120-130c releasing acrolein, an indigestible toxic substance which increases the cholesterol content. For healthy diet, the recommended intake is 15-30 g per day.

ALTERNATIVE BUTTER

In Europe, BUTTER is made exclusively from cows milk, but in Africa and Asia the milk of the BUFFALO, CAMEL, GOAT, EWE, MARE, and DONKEY is used to manufacture BUTTERS with a very strong flavor.

The food industry has produced various BUTTER substitutes. The best known of these is MARGARINE, but various other spreading products are available, many of which have a lower calorific value than BUTTER and MARGARINE.

BUTTER MANUFACTURE in FRANCE

The milk is skimmed, and then the cream is pasteurized and placed in a maturation tank with selected yeasts (these give the butter its aroma). The cream is then churned so that globules of fat form and the BUTTERMILK are eliminated. The BUTTER is then washed and blended. Traditionally, the various stages of manufacture are performed in separate machines, but the whole process may be performed continuously in a butyrator. Various additives are permitted: antioxidant (ascorbic acid), deoxidize (bicarbonate of soda), salt (sodium chloride), and coloring agents (raucous or carotene). At room temperature, good BUTTER should not be brittle, lumpy, or sticky and should not sweat droplets of water; it should have a faintly fresh aromatic scent and a delicate nutty flavor.

BUTTER is usually packaged in 500-g, 250-g, or 125-g rolls or slabs and in individual portion of 7-30. It is wrapped in greaseproof or foil-lined paper or sealed in wax-coated cardboard pots or plastic boxes. BUTTER can also be sold in cans, mainly in tropical regions.

It is very easy to keep BUTTER fresh in the refrigerator: the BUTTER is placed is a special compartment or airtight BUTTER dish because it readily absorbs odors. If a refrigerator is not available, special earthenware BUTTER container filled with salt water is necessary, especially in warmer climates. If left to expose to the light and air it will oxidize and become rancid. Salted BUTTER keeps longer as the salt acts as a preservative.

BUTTER CONTINUE

LABELS

There are two main types of BUTTER to choose from: sweet cream and lactic butter. The SWEET CREAM varieties, which are most common, are manufactured using pasteurized CREAM to which salt is added to give a longer shelf life. They have a mild and delicate flavor and keep well in the refrigerator for up to six weeks.

LACTIC BUTTER is made from CREAM that has been allowed to ripen under special conditions, giving the butter its distinctive full flavor and smooth texture. This type of BUTTER is traditionally made in the Netherlands and Denmark and exported worldwide.

CLARIFIED BUTTER

Pure BUTTER fat without any solids, liquid or foam. It should be transparent when molten. Butterfat that has been separated from its water and milk keeps about three times longer, does not burn in sauting, and has a pure clear flavor. Cut unsalted butter into small pieces and melt over low heat without stirring and without allowing the butter to sizzle, and then simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Strain the mixture well and let the clear yellow liquid cool before covering. When chilled, CLARIFIED BUTTER becomes grainy. It should not be used as a spread but only in cooking.

COUNPOND BUTTER (FLAVOURED BUTTER)

Butter flavored by pounding it with herbs, shell, spices, etc., then sieving out any inedible or unwanted bits. Usually written as BEURRE followed by the name of the flavoring e.g. BEURRE dAMANDE, BEURRE de PAPRIKA. All are listed under BEURRE and/or English name of the flavoring.

CULTURED BUTTER

The same bacteria that give buttermilk its velvety thickness and tang are added to the cream for this BUTTER, The culture, Lactic Acid, causes the cream to ferment just enough to give it a faint elusive tartness.

CONCENTRATED - or (COOKING) BUTTER-

Ordinary BUTTER with the water, salt and nonfat milk solids extracted from it; contains 96% butterfat. It has a firm texture and- due to the low moisture content is excellent for shallow frying and sauting, as it does not decompose at high temperatures. It is used mainly for baking but recipes may have to be adapted by slightly increasing the liquid and salt content. Covered it keeps well in the refrigerator for up to six months and freezes well for long period. 

DAIRY BUTTER

Pasteurized BUTTER whose taste is not considered pure enough to deserve Ministry of Agriculture approval; called table butter or cooking butter (these name have no legal value), it does not keep as well as pasteurized butter.

EEC BUTTER

Dairy BUTTER purchased by the Government during periods of overproduction, deep-frozen for not more than one year, and placed on the market in periods of high demand at prices lower than that of cheapest butter. It does not keep for more than one week.

FARMHOUSE BUTTER

Prepared in the area of origin under strict conditions of hygiene, it is delicious but uncommon. It can be kept for a week in the refrigerator or it may be frozen, well wrapped, for up to three months.

GHEE

Clarified fat, commonly used in Indian cooking. An ancient food, it is mentioned in the Purana, a collection of legends, religious precepts, and rules for practical living, in which the human body is represented in the form of circles associated with primordial foods: palm sugar, wine, ghee, milk yoghurt, and water. The best GHEE is made of butter from buffaloes milk (twice as rich in fat as cows milk). It is used as an ingredient in patisserie, as a cooking fat, to season dry vegetable pure, rice, etc. Among poorer people GHEE is made of sesame oil or mustard. In Nepal it is made of YALKS milk.

IMPORTED BUTTER

Imported from Denmark or the Netherlands, this BUTTER is of uniform quality and often whiter than ordinary butter (the country of origin must be shown).

LACTIC BUTTER

BUTTER made from a cream treated with Lactobacillus sop. To give it a slightly sour flavor.

LIGHT BUTTER

In accordance with labeling restriction, LIGHT or LITE BUTTER has 50% less fat as compared with a standard serving of traditional BUTTER. Because of the high water content, LIGHT BUTTER is inappropriate for cooking and baking and is useful only as a spread.

PASTEURIZED BUTTER

Factory-produced and officially monitored, it has a fresh uniform taste (the milk is recaptured with commercial fermenting agents); the labels fine or superfine have no legal value. Pasteurized BUTTER will keep for up to one month in the refrigerator.

REGIONAL BUTTER

Produced solely in its region using cream from the local dairy cows. Each regions BUTTER has its own distinctive flavor, texture, and color due to the quality of the pastures.

RESTORED BUTTER

Produced from poor quality cream, reblended with bicarbonate of soda for deacidification; rare on the general market.

SALTED BUTTER

Contains 1.5-2 g salt per 100 g butter. It enhances the taste and textured of foods when used for cooking and R. Oliver, talking about Echoer salted butter, considers that salt develops subtle and appreciable aromas in the whey of the butter.

SWEET BUTTER

Prepared using cream with low acidity; fragile and still uncommon on the open market, it is fine and delicate but does not keep well.

WHIPPED BUTTER

The butter is whipped while nitrogen is injected, usually 60% of the total volume one cup whipped butter weighs two-third as much as one cup traditional butter. The fat content is still 80% by weight.

YAK BUTTER (TIBET

A very strong-smelling BUTTER made from Yak milk and invariably used in Tibetan tea. The Tibetans use yaks milk also to make small very hard cube-shape cheeses and butter, which is eaten when rancid.

OTHER FATS

DRIPPING

Fat that has separated from MEAT during cooking. It has to be strained or clarified.

LARD

A cooking fat obtained by melting down PORK fat. LARD is a fine white fat, which is not used as much these days as formerly because of its high animal-fat content. It is used particularly for slow cooking, but also for deep-fraying (it has a high smoking point) and for making PASTRY. It has a fairly pronounced flavor, which is associated traditionally with dishes from the north and east France, and Italy. It is used in the cookery of Alsace, Brittany, Scandinavia, and Hungary, for RAGOUTS and dishes featuring CABBAGE, ONION, and PORK, and also in specialties of the Auvergne region. LARD is also used a great deal in China and Italy.

FAT (CORPUS GRAS, GRAISSE, MATIRE GRAS)

LIPID substances containing glycerol and FATTY ACIDS. FATS are solid at lower temperatures; oils, however, are liquid at room temperature, due to their higher content of unsaturated FATTY ACIDS, FATS and oils do not dissolve in water, but they may be emulsified with water (for example in MARGARINE and BUTTER making).

Foods contains FATS usually have a small amount of fat-soluble substances, including vitamin A (retinal), D (containing varying amounts of cholesterol), and E, as well as flavor components.

There are basically two types of FATS: SATURATED FATS (or SATURATES) and UNSATURATED FATS (these include POLYUNSATURATED FATS or POLYUNSATURATES). Saturated fats are found in dairy products (butter, milk, cheese etc.), animal fats (lard, pork fat, suet, etc.), cakes, biscuits and hardened MARGARINE. They are also found in vegetable fats like coconut oil and palm oil. On food labels they may be listed in the ingredients as hydrogenated vegetable fat/oil. Unsaturated fats are found in vegetable oils (such as sunflower, corn, or Soya oils), spreads and margarines (which are high in Polyunsaturates), nuts and oil y fish, such as herring and mackerel. Fats are widely used for cooking and preparing food: frying, baking, roasting, and pastry-making, as well as preparing liaisons and emulsions.

FATTY ACIDS

The basic element of LIPIDS, which are mainly triglyceridis, composed of one molecule of glycerol and three FATTY ACIDS. There are about 20 common FATTY ACIDS, distinguishable by the degree to which they will bond with each other. They may be SATURATED (when no bonding is possible) or MONOUNSATURATED, and several double bondings for the POLYUSATURATES). Of the polyunsaturated fatty acids some, such as linoleic acid, are essential, as the body cannot synthesize them. They play an important part in growth, cellular structures, and the maintenance of a good skin. The body can make the best use of dietary lipids if they represent a sensible combination of the three types of fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids are to be found mainly in meat and pork products, cheese, butter, and animal fats; monounsaturates in olive and peanut oil; polyunsatuates in oil made from corn, sunflower seeds, and grape pips, as well as Soya (soy) beans and rapeseed.

LIPIDS

The scientific term for a group of substances that include the natural fats and oils (simple lipids), as well as the sterols, phospholipids, and glycolipids (compound lipids). Lipids are the principal source of energy provided by food, yielding 9.3 Cal per gram. They are also important as one of the forms in which the body can store energy, but excessive fat reserves lead to weight problems. Lipids are also essential for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K and they cannot by synthesize naturally in the body. The lipids in our bodies, like those in food, are made up basically of triglycerides (a triglycerides consists of one glycerol moleculecombined with three fatty acids). Food containing a high proportion of lipids includes cooking oils and fats, dairy products, and nuts. An excessively high consumption of those foods (both in quantity and in proportion of other food constituents) should be avoided.

MARGARINE

A fat invented in 1869 by French chemist Henry Mge-Mouris. It was based on beef fat and skimmed milk and was sold commercially from 1872. Various attempts were made to use other fats. A new process was discovered in Germany to raise the melting point of vegetable fats and also to prevent them from going rancid; this helped to make MARGARINE more popular. Today MARGARINE is any food substance that resembles BUTTER and can be used in the same way. By low, MARGARINE contains 80% fat and no more than 16% water, the same proportions as in BUTTER. Margarine may be made with single oil, or a blend of a number of oils, including animal fats, such as herring, anchovy, and pilchard, and vegetable oils from sources like Soya (soy) bean, sunflower, palm, rapeseed, safflower, and corn. A number of vegetable oils used in making Margarine sunflower, safflower, and Soya, for example are high in Polyunsaturated fats and a Margarine made entirely from one of these may be selected by people following a low-cholesterol diet. Flavoring, coloring, emulsifiers, and whey are added; vitamins A and D are

added to table Margarine in the UK, although a variable quantity of salt is added and this acts as a natural preservative.

A distinction is made between Margarine used for baking and cooking, those used for spreading, and those specially made for the catering profession. Hard Margarines, usually employed in cooking and baking, are sold in rectangular packets. They contain mixed animal and fish, fish and vegetable oils, or vegetable oils only and can be used for all kinds of cooking except deep-frying. They are particularly suitable for baking, roasting, braising, frying, and making roux. Spreading margarines are soft and sold in tubs. They often consist of vegetable oils only and are manufactured to resemble BUTTER as closely as possible as regards texture and taste. They may be eaten on bread, toast, etc., and used in home baking and can be used instead of butter in compound butters, on vegetables and grilled (broiled) meat, in pures, and with noodles and rice. The margarines used in catering differ both in their consistency and their melting point, depending on their subsequent use: making puff pastry, raised doughs, croissant pastry, cake mixtures, or cream filling.

Once thought to be healthier than butter due to its lower proportion of SATURED FAT. Unfortunately the chemical process produce fats which do not occurs in nature (transacts opposed to cist-forms) which, although they do appear in butter at lower concentration, may be deleterious to health is some as yet unknown way.

OTHER ANIMAL FATS

Fats from Turkey, Chicken, Ducks, and Geese tend to be more healthful than Pork Lard but are firmer and blander. Beef and Lamb fat are also used, but their taste can overpower milder foods, and they are generally used only for cooking Beef or Lamb.

Rendering is the process of extracting and purifying fat from animal products and can easily be done at home. Being by trimming off all fat from the meat and cutting it into small pieces. Do not worry if there are a few bits of skin or meat attached-these can be strained after Rendering. The two methods for Rendering DRY and WET, produce slightly different results. WET-RENDERED fat is pure and bland tasting, and a darker color. DRY-RENDERED fat will also smoke or burn at lower temperature. Dry rendering occurs any time we fry bacon or saut ground meat. The fat appears in the pan as the meat cooks may be collected and used as a cooking fat. Typically, dry rendering is the first step of many meat soups and stews: toss a few bits of fatty bacon, beef trimmings, or chicken fat into a pot, heat it until the fat melts, and then proceed to add the other ingredients. Dry Rendering may also be done in moderate (350F) oven. Wet Rendering is generally reserved for accumulating a large amount of fat to be used at a later time. The trimmed fat is placed in a pot of water and brought to a gentle boil until all the fat melts. Then, as the liquid cools, the pure fat rises to the top, to be easily crapes off and used as cooking fat. In parts of France, Rendered animal fat is sometimes flavored with garlic or sweet spices. Generally, store-bought Lard in this country (USA) has been WER RENDERED and is flavorless, useful only in contributing texture to a dish. All animal fats should be stored in cover containers in the refrigerator.

SATURATED FAT

Hard fats in which all carbon atoms are attached to the maximum number of other atoms, usually two carbon and two hydrogen atoms. Unsaturated soft fats and oils are converted to harder fats by hydrogenation, a process which can produce the TRANS FATTY ACIDS which some suspect to be Harmful for pregnant and nursing mothers. Saturated fats are said to be unhealthy but fashions in heath change from time to time. Small amounts of natural Saturated fat (SUET, LARD, BUTTER, etc.) are probably beneficiary.

SHORTENINGS:

All fats have the ability to shorten gluten strands to give baked foods a more tender structure. Commercially produced SHORTENINGS are white, tasteless fats (unless real or artificial butter flavor and yellow color have been added) that are solid at room temperature. Designed for baking, they are processed from animal fats or refined and hydrogenated vegetable oils and whipped with air. Emulsified SHRORTNENING has an emulsified added to help the mixing when a great deal of sugar is involved.

SUET

The fat surrounding the kidney of beef or sheep, it is skinned and cleaned and sold fresh for gratin or already shredded and packed. It is used for steaming puddings