What is Butter?
Butter comes from churning milk or cream.
When you churn, vigorously stir or shake milk or cream, the butterfat, or milk fat, starts sticking together and separates from the buttermilk.
The butter you buy at the store is made from pasteurized cream, and it comes in salted and unsalted varieties.
You can also buy whipped butter, which is regular butter that has been whipped with air or nitrogen, which makes it easier to spread and melt.
9 Reasons Why We Think Butter is Better
Today, more and more Americans want to know what’s in their food – but that’s not all. People want real ingredients they can recognize. That’s led to some companies rethinking ingredients and swapping them with more natural, familiar ones. For example, this new ad from McDonald’s touts that the Egg McMuffin is made fresh in their kitchens, with real butter.
You can feel good about these changes too – especially when real butter is involved. Here are nine reasons why we think butter tastes better:
1. It is a simple food made with simple ingredients. Butter starts with cream, which is made from milk. Depending on the type of butter you choose, the ingredient list can end there. Otherwise, salt is a common ingredient for flavor.
2. Butter is such a simple food that you can make it at home.
3. You can feel good about where your butter comes from. Learn more about how it gets to your table with this video.
4. Don’t feel guilty about adding it to your diet: Butter can fit into an overall nutritionally balanced diet. The key is to be mindful of the portion; 1 teaspoon provides about 34 calories and 4 grams of fat, which can fit into the 10 percent of total calories (based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet) from saturated fat maximum recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
5. Nothing adds flavor and texture like rich, creamy butter. Check out these delicious recipes from our friends at Go Bold with Butter to learn how you can make your recipes even more delicious.
6. Butter can be hard to replace in recipes, too. For example, some alternatives contain less fat and more water, which can change how your recipe turns out.
7. Lactose intolerant? No problem. Butter can be a lactose intolerance friendly option. With .003 g lactose, a teaspoon of butter contains little to no lactose.
8. While butter may be a simple food, it comes in a number of varieties. Of course you may be familiar with salted and unsalted butter, but also look for European-style butter or whipped butter for different flavors and options for your meals.
9. And, need one more reason? An emerging body of scientific research suggests whole milk dairy foods may be linked to neutral to potential health benefits.
Looking for more butter resources? Check out some of ours below:
Continue exploring more tasty recipes
More Recipes
