Butter - Storage and cooking

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is an everyday food in many parts of the world. Butter consists of butterfat surrounding miniscule droplets consisting mostly of water and milk proteins. Butter from cow's milk is most common, but butter is made from the milk of other mammals as well, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks. Salt, flavorings, or preservatives are sometimes added. Butter is used as a condiment and in cooking applications including baking, sauce making, and frying. Butter can be rendered to produce clarified butter or ...

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• Butter - Butter making
• Butter - Types of butter
• Butter - History
• Butter - Worldwide
• Butter - Storage and cooking
• Butter - Health and nutrition
• Butter - Notes

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Normal butter softens to a spreadable consistency around 15 °C (60 °F), well above refrigerator temperatures. The "butter compartment" found in many refrigerators may be one of the warmer sections inside, but it still leaves butter quite hard. Until recently, many refrigerators sold in New Zealand featured a "butter conditioner", a compartment kept warmer than the rest of the refrigerator—but still cooler than room temperature—with a small heater.^{See also:}

Butter, Butter - Butter making, Butter - Types of butter, Butter - History, Butter - Worldwide, Butter - Storage and cooking, Butter - Health and nutrition, Butter - Notes

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Before modern factory butter making, cream was usually collected from several milkings and was therefore several days old and somewhat fermented by the time it was made into butter. Butter made from a fermented cream is known as cultured butter. During fermentation, the cream naturally sours as bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid. The fermentation produces additional aroma compounds, including diacetyl, which makes for a fuller-flavored and more "buttery" tasting product.^{See also:}

Butter, Butter - Butter making, Butter - Types of butter, Butter - History, Butter - Worldwide, Butter - Storage and cooking, Butter - Health and nutrition, Butter - Notes

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According to USDA figures, one tablespoon of butter (14 grams) contains 100 calories, all from fat, 11 grams of fat, of which seven grams are saturated fat, and 30 milligrams of cholesterol.[20] In other words, butter consists mostly of saturated fat and is a significant source of dietary cholesterol. For these reasons, butter has been generally considered to be a contributor to health problems, especially heart disease. ...

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Butter, Butter - Butter making, Butter - Types of butter, Butter - History, Butter - Worldwide, Butter - Storage and cooking, Butter - Health and nutrition, Butter - Notes

Read more here: » Butter: Encyclopedia II - Butter - Health and nutrition

Since even accidental agitation can turn cream into butter, it is likely that the invention of butter goes back to the earliest days of dairying, perhaps in the Mesopotamian area between 9000 and 8000 BCE. The earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat's milk; cattle are not thought to have been domesticated for another thousand years or so.[6] An ancient method of butter making, still used today in some parts of Africa and the Near ...

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Butter, Butter - Butter making, Butter - Types of butter, Butter - History, Butter - Worldwide, Butter - Storage and cooking, Butter - Health and nutrition, Butter - Notes

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Unhomogenized milk and cream contain butterfat in the form of microscopic globules, each of which is surrounded by a membrane made of phospholipids (fatty acid emulsifiers) and proteins. These membranes are what prevent the fat in milk from pooling together into a single mass. Making butter involves agitating cream to damage the fat globule membranes, allowing the fats to come together and separate from the other parts of the cream. The specific details of how this is done can create butters with different consistencies, mostly due to the bu ...

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Butter, Butter - Butter making, Butter - Types of butter, Butter - History, Butter - Worldwide, Butter - Storage and cooking, Butter - Health and nutrition, Butter - Notes

Read more here: » Butter: Encyclopedia II - Butter - Butter making

India produces and consumes more butter than any other nation, dedicating almost half of its annual milk production to making butter or ghee. In 1997, India produced 1,470,000 metric tons of butter, consuming almost all of it. Second in production was the United States (522,000 tons), then France (466,000), Germany (442,000), and New Zealand (307,000). In terms of consumption, Germany was second after India, using 578,000 tons of butter in 1997, followed by France (528,000), Russia (514,000), and the United States (505,000). M ...

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Butter, Butter - Butter making, Butter - Types of butter, Butter - History, Butter - Worldwide, Butter - Storage and cooking, Butter - Health and nutrition, Butter - Notes

Read more here: » Butter: Encyclopedia II - Butter - Worldwide