Butter Quality Check: Mildly sour or sweet cream - which butter is the best?
Created: 01/11/2022, 18:30
Butter is butter, but it comes in countless flavors and qualities.
German branded butter has the highest seal of quality.
"Butter by the fish!" - and with everything else too.
Butter is used in Germany as a spread, for cooking, baking, roasting, glazing and for a number of other tasks in the kitchen.
In the supermarket you can buy them in all sorts of shapes, colorful packaging and with numerous labels and descriptions.
The trained housewife or husband usually uses good "German branded butter", but why?
That's why branded butter is of the highest quality and what you should consider when buying your butter.
German branded butter: the highest quality and constantly checked
First of all, it should be said: tastes are different.
The sweet cream butter that one person likes can be indigestible for another who prefers sour cream butter - and vice versa.
But if you like everything and it's just a matter of buying the best quality, then you should reach for "German branded butter" on the supermarket shelf.
If you want to save on groceries and stock up on butter on sale, you can also freeze it to make it last longer.
What do you most commonly use butter for around the house?
© Shotshop/Imago
It's not a brand, it's the designation of a commercial grade that can be used by any brand of butter as long as the product in question complies with the relevant regulations.
According to the Butter Ordinance, "Deutsche Markenbutter" is the highest quality butter in Germany and the term can only be used for butter made from milk from cows or cream made from cows' milk.
Only water and table salt as well as certain lactic acid bacteria may be used during the processing of the pasteurized cream.
Don't want to miss any more recipes and kitchen tricks?
Click here for the gourmet newsletter from our partner Merkur.de
An official butter test is carried out once a month, during which the butter to be tested must be tested by the dairies for appearance, smell, taste and texture, water distribution, spreadability and the pH value.
At least four out of five points must be achieved.
The dairies themselves must send the results to the competent state authorities.
Companies are also randomly checked on site or the products in the supermarket.
By the way: If you don't have butter at home, you can substitute the ingredient with oil when baking or cooking.
Other types of butter: a selection for every sweet, sour and gourmet taster
But if you don't really want to buy "German branded butter", then you really are spoiled for choice in the refrigerated section.
Next to the branded butter is usually the "German dairy butter", an equally interesting butter title, which is a little easier to get.
Whey cream may also be used in the production of dairy butter.
In addition, this trade class only has to be checked every two months and three out of five rating points are enough to be allowed to keep the designation.
In addition, there are varieties such as sour cream butter, which consists of mild creamy cream or unleavened milk.
Sour cream butter, on the other hand, is made from cream that gets a sour flavor from lactic acid cultures.
This butter matures for several hours.
In contrast to sour cream butter, mildly acidified butter is only added to lactic acid cultures after it has matured.
This keeps the sour taste within limits.
Apart from these designations, there is more to read on the butter packaging in the supermarket.
Terms such as "pasture butter", "alpine butter", "country butter", "Irish butter", "mountain butter" or whatever else the manufacturers can think of to market their products can still be found there.
Such designations are not legally protected or defined and may be used at the dairies own discretion and marketing strategy.
The eternal question: the difference between butter and margarine
The difference between butter and margarine is briefly explained like that between meat and tofu.
While butter is made from cow's milk or other animal milk, margarine usually consists mainly of vegetable ingredients, including rapeseed, olive or sunflower oil.
On the one hand, this makes margarine vegan, often more spreadable and rich in omega-3 fatty acids, but on the other hand it can also lead to more pollutants in production, for example mineral oil and palm oil, as
Öko-Test
recently found.
Did you know that Rama is not (anymore) margarine?
Do not refreeze these foods once they have been thawed
View photo gallery
If you attach particular importance to the spreadability of butter, you should not simply leave the spread in the kitchen.
Experts recommend storing butter in the fridge to keep the fats in it from going rancid.
Instead, you should simply take them out early before consumption so that they are spreadable, or store them in a butter compartment in the refrigerator at slightly higher temperatures.
