Results of a blind tasting using different butters in pastry

[Phred]

G'day guys and gals
I came up with the idea a few weeks back to hold a blind tasting of
different butters. One of our specialist delis is now selling
imported French butter (at great cost <sigh>). I opined to truly
Invited six foodie friends to the tasting (afternoon tea).
Purchased French butter, a supermarket home brand butter and a best
quality Aussie butter (WesternStar), all unsalted.
Made up 3 identical batches of pastry
Blind baked little tartlet shells noting very carefully which dozen
was made with which butter
Put a small spoonful of sweetened cream in each and topped with a ripe
strawberry. (kept this simple so the flavours wouldn't override the
pastry flavour
Put a card on each tart platter labelled Sample A, B, C
Made up a little scorecards with boxes for flavour, texture and
lightness
Results: to a man, the French butter scored highest! Really very
interesting. That pastry was so light and buttery and almost layered
like a puff. Amazing, since all method of making and rolling out were
identical.
The home brand and Western Star were evenly split for 2nd and 3rd.
So there you have it. Is $7 a lot to pay for 125g butter? You bet!
Maybe, for me, for an extra special occasion I might invest. It would
be interesting to do a similar test with the same butters making some
other butter rich item? Any suggestions? Bearnaise sauce, a butter
sponge?

G'day Bron,

Interesting little exercise of yours there! I couldn't find imported
Frog butter here in the sticks, so I'm just wondering -- did you
happen to notice any of the data in the table of "Nutrition
Information" required by regulation here in Oz? There may be some
difference there that would explain the difference in quality.

For example, the locally produced "biodynamic" whole milk from
Mungalli contains 4% total fats compared with the usual 3.6% in
"common" milk brands. And it tastes *very* different. But it's also
bloody expensive. :-(

FWIW, here is some data from the label of "Coles $mart buy butter"
[the cheapest I could find] per 100 g:

Protein <1 g
Fat: total 80.5 g
saturated 53.1 g
CHO: total <1 g
sugars <1 g
Sodium 640 mg

Cheers, Phred.

[Giusi]

Post by Phred

G'day guys and gals
I came up with the idea a few weeks back to hold a blind tasting of
different butters. One of our specialist delis is now selling
imported French butter (at great cost <sigh>). I opined to truly
Invited six foodie friends to the tasting (afternoon tea).
Purchased French butter, a supermarket home brand butter and a best
quality Aussie butter

Interesting little exercise of yours there! I couldn't find imported
Frog butter here in the sticks, so I'm just wondering -- did you
happen to notice any of the data in the table of "Nutrition
Information" required by regulation here in Oz? There may be some
difference there that would explain the difference in quality.

From my experience it is because some French butter makers still age the
cream before making butter, and if they also churn it instead of using a
centrifuge, that makes it even better. Used to be made like that
everywhere, but it is getting hard to find aged cream, churned butter.