The origin and spread of butter making in the world

As mentioned, the oldest trace of the production of butter dates back to the Babylonian era, in a bas-relief depicting a primitive churn, preserved in Baghdad from the III Millennium BC. Indo-European nations, which in 1500 BC developed the clarified butter technique: this is obtained after cooking it in a bain-marie, which eliminates most of the water and casein. The story then arrives in Egypt with hieroglyphs preserved at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Butter is spoken of in the Old Testament and in Roman writings, which apply the product in the medical and cosmetic fields.

During the High Middle Ages in Scotland, it was used on board ships and as protection for hulls, while in Scandinavia as a body cream for the bath. For over 4000 years, butter has been obtained, used, transported and perhaps tasted: but we must wait until the Late Middle Ages before seeing it as an ingredient in everyday cooking and 1872 to obtain it on an industrial level. Wilhelm Feldt, an American from Germany, puts the separator which, thanks to the centrifugal force, is able to skim the milk mechanically. Before this very important invention, making butter was a grind: you used the churn that went heated by hand, the filtered cream was poured and knocked down with the piston until it became solid.

Types of butter

Basically, a distinction is made between butter produced exclusively with milk cream and butter made from a mixture of butter, cream, and whey. According to food law, “butter” can be produced from cream or from a mixture of cream and buttermilk cream. The fat content of the “butter” must be at least 82%. If using a mixture of cream and buttermilk cream, the product can be described as “buttermilk butter”. If buttermilk butter is made in a dairy, it can be called “dairy butter”.

In traditional butter-based products, the content of defatted dry matter is low: only 1.2-1.5 per cent. If the butter produced in the churn is washed, the content drops sharply, even below 1 percent. From a nutritional point of view, therefore, the defatted dry substance has only minimal importance, while its influence is significant from a bacteriological and sensorial point of view. To avoid negative alterations in butter-based products, the distribution of the aqueous phase must be carefully observed, so that the size of the droplets does not exceed 10 μm (micrometre, also called micron, metric unit of measure for length equal to 0.001 mm).

Special butter

Special butter is a sector term. It is a fresh product made with milk cream. It can be made from sour cream or sweet cream with the addition of a natural lactic acid and flavorings. In smaller quantities, special butter is also sweet cream butter (salted or unsalted, while salted butter holds only small market shares). It is subject to regular quality checks by the Butter sector organization. For example, it must have minimal acidity and the pH must not exceed 5.0. This value applies to acidified butter. The statutory value for acidified butter is a maximum of 5.5. According to the law, sweet cream butter must have a pH of at least 6.0.

Dairy butter

This butter is produced in the dairy from a mixture of milk cream and whey cream (60:40) without acidification. The market share for this product is very small (local sales). It is important in this context that the whey cream is not acidified, in order to keep the copper content in the whey butter low.

Butter

“Butter” is a mixture of butter, cream and whey (eg 94: 6). To produce butter from milk cream, both acidified and Swiss-made butter are used. Fresh butter or stock butter can be used. It is also possible to use a mixture of cream and whey that is buttered and unmolded directly.

Melted butter

Other names are for example roasting butter, dehydrated milk fats, as well as butter oil or ghee. Internationally, the various definitions are used in a targeted way to distinguish qualities. Dehydrated milk fats, also referred to as AMF (Anhydrous Milk Fat), correspond to the highest quality requirements and consist of 99.9 percent milk fat. Butter oil and ghee, on the other hand, are less pure products and of lower quality.

The production takes place mostly from butter. For this purpose, the butter is melted, centrifuged to separate the whey phase, extracted with water vapor and heated to a high temperature under vacuum. In order to use the melted butter as butter for roasting, an appropriate flavor is created with the help of small additions of buttermilk in the final stage of production. Melted butter can be stored without refrigeration and heated to elevated temperatures.

Lately AMF is produced directly from cream. For this purpose, the cream is concentrated and broken in special separators, after which the processing continues as with the use of butter as raw material. Instead of steam extraction it is possible to conduct ventilation with inert gases, for example nitrogen. This process is often used in the production of vegetable oil. With milk fat, however, the process did not work well.

Melted butter is pure milk fat, made with cream butter or whey butter or dairy butter.

Butter cream for roasting

Butter-based product for roasting, which is creamy at room temperature. By heating, crystallization and filtration, a low melting butyric fat fraction is obtained. The separated high-melting fraction is highly appreciated for the production of puff pastry, for example for croissants with butter.

Butter with a lower fat content: three quarter fat butter must have a minimum milk fat content of 600 g / kg and a maximum fat content of 620 g / kg, half fat butter must have a minimum fat content of 390 g / kg and a maximum fat content of 410 g / kg. Half-fat butter contains more milk proteins (3-5%) and other substances such as thickeners and emulsifiers. It is usually very easy to spread at refrigerator temperature. The starting product is special butter, which is mixed with milk components to the required content. It can also be characterized as “light butter” or “light butter”.

Preparations of butter and milk fats for spreading

Mixed products containing butter and other food ingredients. Butter preparations must have a minimum milk fat content of 62%, milk fat spreads 100 g / kg and less than 820 g / kg. Margarines sometimes contain butter to improve taste and image, for example margarine with 21 percent butter. More detailed provisions are contained in the Food Law Ordinances. 

Pastry butter

Pastry butter is a high-melting milk-fat fraction (stearin fraction) and is produced in parallel with buttercream for roasting.

Average chemical composition of main, minor and trace components

The chemical composition is distinguished by main, minor and trace components. The average values ​​for the most important products available.

Tables 1 and 2 according to the indications of Agroscope ( Agroscope is the Swiss centre of excellence for agricultural research, and is affiliated with the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG). Agroscope makes an important contribution to a sustainable agriculture and food sector as well as to an intact environment, thereby contributing to an improved quality of life).

* Exception: salted butter contains table salt
. Remark: “Light butter” must have a fat content between 390 and 410 g / kg according to the 2016 requirements. The data in the table is from a period in which the regulation was different.

Characterization of the physical properties of butter products

Butter products are classified not only on the basis of the fat content and the quality of the cream, but also on the basis of physical criteria. The physical properties are characterized as described in Table 3 below.