More Better Butter: Advice from Elle Magazine

1. Search out artisanal butter

There is a buttermaker in Brittany named Jean-Yves Bordier who has become as famous for his butter as Pierre Herme has become for his pastries.  Bordier’s butter is made with organic cream, cultured, churned in small teak churns and shaped by hand between wood paddles.  With good reason, Elle tells its readers to look for his butter or to order it from the source.  (Fromagerie Jean-Yves Bordier, 9 rue de l’Orme, 35400 Saint-Malo; Tel: 02-99-40-88-79.)

Elle also mentions Echire as a premium-quality artisanal butter.

2. Don’t compromise on quality

Elle’s credo : It’s better to have good butter less often than to have average butter everyday.

3. Respect your butter

Take care of your butter when you get it home by keeping it well wrapped or in a butterkeeper (butter picks up every odor in the refrigerator); take it out of the fridge 10 minutes before you want to use it, so that its aromas can develop and its texture can soften; and, ideally, have the butter “raw” or stir it into a dish at the last minute.

4. Try flavored butters

Once again, Elle suggests Bordier butters, which, in addition to being made sweet and salted, can also be found with seaweed (sooooooo good with oysters!) and smoked salt.  For those of us who can’t buy such butters at the corner market, I guess we can read this to mean that we should try making our own seasoned or compound butters.

5. Broaden your butter horizons

Elle encourages its readers to go beyond cow-milk butters and, for example, to try butters made from sheep or goat milk. 

So we’ve come full-circle – have a butter tasting!