As I have been getting into eating more and more cultured (aka fermented) foods, the one thing I kept reading about, especially in the comment sections of different articles, was how delicious cultured butter is. It has got a little bit more tang and flavor than regular butter, but in all the good ways. And of course because it is cultured it has many more health benefits than regular butter.


What is Cultured Butter?

You might be wondering what in the world cultured butter means? I wondered too. One funny commenter said, “What does cultured mean? Do I take it to the opera? Expose it to ballet on PBS? Teach it French?” :)

According to Dorie Greenspan in her Short Stack Book, Butter, “with this kind of butter, the cream is treated with cultures (like yogurt), allowed to ferment and then churned. The result is a fuller flavor with noticeable acidity.” People often describe it as having a complex tang to it.

• Cultured butter is higher in fat than regular butter (82 to 86 versus 80 percent), which makes it far better for baking and more pliant for spreading.
• It can have different flavor profiles from one batch to the next, depending on how and what it is made with--cheesy and tart, creamy and sweet, herbal, vegetable, too salty, not salty enough, etc.

They say it is very easy to make cultured butter at home--I think I will try making some myself and I will report back about that. But it is also very readily available at most grocery stores these days too. I get mine that is imported from France at Trader Joe’s. It is SO good!


Some of the health benefits of cultured butter are:

• Trace minerals: Manganese, Zinc, Chromium, Selenium, and Iodine; all in a highly absorbable form.
• Cultured or fermented dairy products contain lactic acid-producing bacteria that begin to break down both lactose (milk sugars) and casein (milk proteins), which aids in digestion. Both of these are difficult for us to digest and can lead to intestinal damage.
• This helpful bacteria helps strengthen our immune system, keeps pathogenic bacteria from producing and helps digest our food.
• Both vitamins B and C are higher in cultured dairy products.

I think for now I am quite happy with buying my cultured butter, but one reason I can’t wait to make my own someday is that one of the by-products of making homemade cultured butter is that you actually get real buttermilk as a result of the process. Everything I’m reading about it says that the buttermilk is far more exceptional in every way to the typical stuff you find on the shelves in the grocery store. I’m dreaming of buttermilk biscuits and pancakes with the real stuff. 

Have you used cultured butter before? Or is it something you think you’d try? Maybe you can at least pick up a pound of cultured butter to make these delicious cultured butter cookies down below. You’ll be so happy you did!