With a pissed off iliopsoas keeping me from engaging in my newest hobby, running, I had to find other ways to make my final week of unemployment stimulating.
The alternative was to load up on butter. About $40 worth.
As a hobby baker specializing in cookies and a former Fraser Valley girl, Fraser Valley Creamery or Naturel were my go-to brands. I never noticed a significant difference between the two and naturally assumed they were superior to the cheaper alternatives. Recently, I’ve started shopping at grocery stores that aren’t lorded over by Jim Pattison or Galen Weston, and by doing so, I’ve found myself baffled by the butter options available. Organic. Grass fed. New Zealand style. Hand vs machine churned. Cultured butter. Medieval bog butter. “Great Value”.
…and goat butter. If you’re a fan of BotW or TotK and are wondering what dish five sticks of butter makes, it’s dubious food. Disappointing, but not surprising.
Anyway, Google insists that the Irish brand Kerrygold is the ultimate butter, but it doesn’t seem to be available in Canada. Likely due to the lobbying efforts the Canadian dairy cartel. Besides, all these review sites are crammed with ads, and I’m wary of heavily monetized sources.
Like a true radical, I set out to become the internet’s most trustworthy source on Canadian butter. Nobody paid me to do this: I did it out of love for baking, and for feeding my pals the most delicious baked goods I can possibly make.
For this experiment, I chose a three-ingredient shortbread recipe. I weighed the ingredients using my Park Tool digital scale (which I originally bought with my employee discount to weigh magic mushrooms). Each batch of dough contained exactly 125g flour, 50g granulated sugar, and 115g unsalted butter.
The four butter brands were:
L’Ancêtre– Based in Bécancour, Quebec, the cows have access to pasture from May until mid-October. For the rest of the year, the cows are required to take regular exercise outdoors, in the fresh air. This means the cows’ natural rhythms are respected, and they can also listen to soothing tunes while chilling on mattresses inside the barn. (I’m paraphrasing L’Ancêtre’s FAQ.)
Natrel– A Montréal-based dairy co-op. Their butter contains no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, but nothing is said about the welfare of their cows.
Rolling Meadow– Reppin’ cows from both Ontario and BC, with the BC bovines having year-round access to grassy pastures and the Ontario ones, at least 120 days a year, more if the weather permits. The cows’ diet consists of at least 75% grass, and as for the other 25%, who knows? The cows’ grass-fed diet may also unlock seasonal notes that reflect the cows’ diet at that time of year.
Savör– The choice butter of dissidents of the Eat Local movement. These New Zealand cows eat at least 85% grass, with the other 15% of their diet kept a secret. Cow kibble? Their website discloses that when the pastures are low on grass, the farmers might feed the cows “small amounts of supplementary feed”. So, yeah, cow kibble.
I will note that I use butter almost exclusively for baking: I don’t even like buttered bread. If that’s the only spread available, I’ll just eat my bread plain like a duck.
After shaping each batch into four logs and wrapping them in plastic wrap, I stuck them in the fridge to chill overnight. In the morning, I lopped a few pucks from each log and baked all varieties simultaneously.
I noticed that the New Zealand butter was the easiest to cream and was slightly yellower than the Canadian brands. This is somewhat discernible in the above photo.
A total of 15 taste testers participated over three days. I did not disclose which butter brands I used and simply labelled them A, B, C, and D to avoid any bias (besides my own). The first three taste testers, myself included, unanimously agreed that L’Ancêtre was the most flavourful, and Natrel, the least.
Admittedly, a few variables were introduced after that first batch:
-I made the cookies smaller for the second batch as my testers were struggling to eat four cookies in one sitting. To compensate for the shrunken portions, I reduced the baking time.
-The cookies had become a day old.
-Same-day cookies, but made from day-old dough.
-Baked from two-day old dough.
-The final tester didn’t sample the cookies that were baked from two-day-old dough until the next day, and they said they were recovering from a cold.
Even then, the results of the freshest batch had me believe L’Ancêtre would win handily. As it turns out, not everybody is a fan of butter produced by cows showered in love and kisses. Some people prefer the taste of suffering.
Out of 15 testers:
4 preferred the butter of pampered French Canadian cows. 5 liked it the least.
7 liked Natrel the best, and 4 liked it the least.
3 voted for Rolling Meadow, and two people did not appreciate the seasonal note they unlocked in their cookie.
Thankfully, Savör had just one fan because this was also the most expensive butter. I think I paid $13 for a 227g brick. 3 testers said it was their least favourite.
Here are some comments from various testers:
“‘(Natrel) had a longer aftertaste.”
“(L’Ancêtre): mild, short, one note. (Natrel) Caramel/longer/more depth. (Rolling Meadow) Sweet/light/almost floral or citrus. ***SEASONAL NOTE UNLOCKED!*** (Savör) Mild/ slow build to mellow conclusion/flat.”
“Fun!!! Exciting!!! Thank you!!!”
“(L’Ancêtre) had a touch more natural flavour, I guess.”
“(Rolling Meadow) is the superior cookie.”
“(L’Ancêtre) has a bit of a weird taste.” This tester added later on, “I was reading Wikipedia on Black Death, as one does on lunch hour.” So, maybe don’t put too much stock in this person’s opinion of L’Ancêtre butter.
If I go by a points system where the favourite gets 3 points and the least favourite gets 0, Natrel is the winner. Rolling Meadow and the polarizing L’Ancêtre brand tied, which leaves the New Zealand brand off the podium.
At the time of the experiment, I had Becel plant butter in my fridge and was seriously considering including it. I refrained on the grounds that it was already a month past its best before date, and I did not wish to discourage veganism.
Although this wasn’t a blind taste test for me, I only researched each brand when I started writing this post. I love that I ended up choosing the brand that apparently gives their cows the most love. It makes me feel slightly morally superior.
Honestly, the problem–if you want to call it that–with my experiment was that all the cookies turned out delicious. Perhaps I’ll redo this experiment, pitting Natrel against three new competitors, including a cheapo brand, and maybe my vegan friends’ favourite plant-based butter.
All this work only to discover that it all comes down to… personal preference.
squaremeat.com 