# What are you paying for butter these days?



## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

My sources are telling me that the wholesale price of butter is way down. Have you people been seeing decreases in prices?

Kuan


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## marmalady (Apr 19, 2001)

Don't know about wholesale, but just saw Land o Lakes at the supermarket for $4.99/lb.!!! Gross. I buy my personal butter at Wegman's, for $1.99/lb.


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## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

From my foodservice guy-$1.59# for a case of 30 1# prints, down significantly from last December. Highest I saw wholesale was @ $2.50#. And they expect us to make a profit with those prices! How about $57.00 for a case of 24 count Romaine lettuce!!!!!!!!


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## calicoskies (Dec 6, 2001)

NC has Land o Lakes butter at $4.29/lb and store brand was $3.29. High, but I still buy it. We are not a margarine family. If it cant be real butter, we go without.


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

has not yet come down here. Still paying 2.56. 30# unsalted.1 pounders. using 4-10 a week, will have to have a price increase soon.


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## chefboy2160 (Oct 13, 2001)

A case of 30 1# prints was $1.76 last week . Also the market had land o lakes at 2 for $3.00 as a special . Looks good for now as I prefer the real thing .


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## lwunderlich (Jan 10, 2002)

Butter prices will be going up and as ice cream season gets going, when cream will be used for ice cream rather than butter. So get prepared for a raise in price. It kinda' like gas, it tends to go higher during vacation time.


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

When I worked at a company that manufactured puff pastry, they locked in a price with our main butter supplier (Harry Wils, out of Secaucus, NJ). Used to go through at least 60 cases a week, as I recall, so it was probably based on a minimum order. Is that a possibility for any of you? Since prices only seem to go UP.


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## chloe23 (Mar 26, 2002)

I don't know if this topic is related, but I was watching the FoodTV network and they had a show about Normandy butter....anyone out there ever try it? Can you really taste the difference? Also, can I buy butter that's cheaper elsewhere besides going to the supermarket? If so, any idea where I can look? I find the supermarket prices for the butter to be really expensive for a small quantity.


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## marmalady (Apr 19, 2001)

Chloe - Go to the Wegman's on Route 202 South in Bridgewater/Raritan; their store brand is $1.99 all the time!

I saw the piece on Normandy butter, too - my mouth watered as they were sitting there eating straight butter off a spoon! I used some French butter at Christmastime to make sables; don't know if it was 'Normandy', but the difference was astounding! The cookies absolutely melted in your mouth, and the butter taste was out of this world! At $5.00/lb. (at Wegman's - I LOVE that store!!), it's certainly not for everyday or bulk use, but what a treat for those special occasions!


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## crane (Dec 1, 2001)

I'm not sure all of the places that Trader Joes has expanded to yet, but they are in Indianapolis now. If I recall the price of a pound of Pelugra was 2.75 or maybe 2.95


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## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

Pros- talk to your foodservice guys about European butter. A lot of times they carry it and don't even know because they never bothered to look it up! The Euro butter I was buying was cheaper than domestic for a time. It is a high butterfat butter and definately different to work with and especially different to bake with. Really really rrrrichhh. The Trader Joes' price is what I would pay for it, five bucks is too much!


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## jim berman (Oct 28, 1999)

I agree with Crane... try to land some Plugra (or Kellers) from your mainliner. Peachcreek is absolutely right on.... often they carry it but don't know. Sysco, USFoods & Alliant/Atalntic all stock Plugra... just ask.


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## mudbug (Dec 30, 1999)

Since I learned how to do it, (with the help of cheftalk members...) I occasionally make my own butter from heavy cream using the KitchenAid. It's so easy and couldn't be more fresh! One quart of heavy cream at Wal-Mart is about $2.60 and it makes 2 cups of fresh butter.

Ummmmm, may have to go make some now! LOL!


:bounce:


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## chloe23 (Mar 26, 2002)

marmalady - thanks for the info....I will check them out when I'm around that area  Thanks again


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## slavegirl (Aug 7, 2001)

are the butter instructions still in the archives anywhere? sounds fun!

SG


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Get a large container of heavy whipping cream. Let it sit out at room temperature overnight or outside for a few hours. 

Pour it into the KitchenAid bowl with the flat beater, not the dough hook. Start it on a medium low speed for 2-3 minutes, then turn it up to medium high. As soon as I hear it start to slosh, that means the milk is separating from the butter (instant homemade buttermilk!). So since I don't want is splashing all over the kitchen, I pour as much of the buttermilk out into a container for later use and continue on medium high speed until it's done separating. I again, pour the milk out and then take a spatula and put the butter in a container. 

It is SO EASY! And it's such a joy to make. 

I don't prefer to add salt but you can. If you do, keep in mind that if you taste it right after you add it, the butter will taste extremely salty. So let it marry for a few hours and it it will mellow out tremendously... 

Enjoy! 

P.S. I sure hope it's yours, Cchiu!


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Some American butter makers are turning out richer butters, with more butterfat than the federal minimum of 80 percent. This is good news for serious home bakers because more fat means less moisture, making pastry easier to handle and yielding better results. Even in clarifying lower-moisture butter for cooking there is less residue to skim off.

Most of the butters here are labeled European-style or extra-creamy, and you will find them in supermarkets. Plugra, made by Keller's in Pennsylvania, has been available to professionals in one-pound blocks and is being sold in half pounds for home use. Plugra is 82 percent fat, and so is the new Horizon Organic European-Style. Land O Lakes Ultra-Creamy is 83 percent, and Organic Valley European Style is 84 percent. Horizon has the richest aroma but a slight greasiness. Land O Lakes is the mildest. 

If you want even more butterfat, some fancy food shops carry Strauss Family Creamery Organic at 84 to 86 percent and Vermont Butter and Cheese at 86 percent. At 86 percent, those two are the densest made. The butters range from $2.89 to $3.79 for a half pound.

Source: NYTimes (May 1, 2002)


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## slavegirl (Aug 7, 2001)

Woo, I am so excited! On the way home tonight I will stop and buy my cream, so I can make it tomorrow! I'll let you know how it is.....

SG


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## plum (Mar 17, 2001)

How did it go, SlaveGirl?

Plum.


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## slavegirl (Aug 7, 2001)

Brilliantly! Oh it was fun!

I heard it sloshing just like the directions said, and I raced to the kitchen, but not fast enough to halt all wall splattering events. I will watch next time, as I missed seeing it start to separate. I poured the buttermilk out and kept going, soon it wasn't separating anymore!


Buttermilk pancakes on Sunday, 2 fruit galettes and a lemon meringue cake came out of the butter, and there is still some left!

My husband was such an enabler, he got all excited since I was being such a geeky dork about making my own butter, and said we'd have to get molds now for it!
:bounce: 

This was great, and so easy. I'm definitely going to try to make my own regularly! So much cheaper. I made unsalted this time, which is what I like to use anyway, but I might mess around with salted to see how much to put in to get the desired effect.

Yay for butter!

SG


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## terrarich (Feb 19, 2002)

I was wondering if you could simmer the cream with a flavoring ingredient, like garlic, let it cool, amd then apply the seperating process? Would the heat affect the fat solids? This might be an interesting approach, flavoring the cream instead of mixing the butter with the ingredients and letting it sit for the flavors to marry.

BTW, I know that this psot might be better suited for a different discussion (i.e. not the cost of butter), but I figured I would follow the course which this thread has taken.

terrarich


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Thank you for sharing, SlaveGirl. You got me all fired up again!


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

fresh bread, fresh butter, hmmmm why not!


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## slavegirl (Aug 7, 2001)

Hey, so fellow butter fiends, er friends,

Two weeks later and my butter I made is almost gone, but not quite. But it now smells like cheese.

This is pretty neat! But why did it happen? I put it in a container and kept it closed in the fridge. My husband suggests that I didn't pack the butter down, so there was air trapped inside it and I should press it into the container that I store it in.

Thoughts? =)

SG


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Your butter must be rancid. Did you add salt to it? Unsalted butter will spoil faster than salted butter.


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## slavegirl (Aug 7, 2001)

nope, no salt. It sure went faster than store bought butter...or maybe I had so much I just couldn't use it all. Hm. I'll try pressing it in hard next time, to see what happens, just for kicks. It was so yum! Time to make more!

SG


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## waz (May 1, 2002)

I had never made butter but was motivated to do so by this thread. Yummy stuff, easy to make. Went over big with my mother in-law on mothers day.

Turns out you need to be certain to get all the butter milk out. If you don't the butter will go rancid much faster. Many recipes call for you to knead the butter slowly to work all the butter milk out.


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Thanks for sharing, Waz, and welcome to Cheftalk!


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