Butter - Do you worry about the expiration date?

[mightymousetech]

Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Originally Posted by Aredeeem
What's the difference with a brand such as Kerry Gold and the store brand. I'm not a chemist or a farmer. I like the taste of Kerry Gold but's that's about all I know about it.



Kerry Gold is butter made from cows which were predom grass fed. Butterfat content is about 82%. American mass produced butter is about 80% but you can buy organic which is higher (84 %). European butters are about 82-84%.

As i understand it, the type of feed as an impact on the taste of butter. Some of the best butter I've ever tasted came from Brittany area of France. Personally I prefer butter made by President (French)


Note: When used for baking, higher butterfat content isn't always better. Things like cookies come out differently


As well as being higher fat content (84% vs 80%) a lot of French butters are "cultured" butter. They have significantly more taste. I find uncultured butters to be almost flavourless. Most butter you find in the grocery store is uncultured.

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-regular-cultured-and-european-butter

 

[Randy_R]

I just saw an article about this. Google it. Some items have use by dates because flavor deterioates. A sell by date doesn't any more than that. I just bought LOL butter for $2.99. I buy many and freeze it and use some way after the sell date and I'm still here to tell about it. I didn't even notice the new packaging. Unless it looks funny or smells, use it at your own risk. Maybe

 

[Food Scientist]

Originally Posted by kschachn
Originally Posted by JLawrence08648
Butter doesn't go bad, long long time, high water content. Are you aware that it doesn't need to be refrigerated to use? You can leave it out to soften for weeks, 65 years of leaving it out and using it, mother did it, I do it. I've never seen butter that has spoiled and neither have any of you. Go ahead and try it, you'll see you can do it. Easy to determine if I'm wrong.

That's not entirely true. Butter does have a high fat content but it does have some proteins that will spoil, unlike clarified butter which has a very long shelf life.

But the fats in both will go "rancid" eventually if exposed to oxygen, heat and light. Maybe I'm just sensitive but I can taste the excess butyric acid in the summer if butter has sat out too long. Not necessarily at our house since we go through it so fast but I have tasted (or rather smelled it) elsewhere. Fats will eventually hydrolyze and oxidize under favorable conditions.

Can you explain how the proteins spoil?

 

[AC1DD]

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
Salted butter is old unsalted butter that was not sold. So it's already processed to extend its life.

As long as it's not rancid you can use it safely. If it's gone bad, you can make ghee out of it.


Huh? That may have been true a century ago but probably not today.

 

[Alfred_B]

@AC1DD what do you mean?

 

[pandus13]

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
@AC1DD what do you mean?

In the age of getting sued for nothing, nobody will risk it anymore.
It is made from the same butter as the sweet/unsweetened.

 

[Alfred_B]

Salt covers up unpleasant and old flavors, including those associated with old age. It's highly doubtful that they would sell it as unadultered instead of covering it up with salt.

As for litigation.. look 2hat kind of garbage they feed us to see if a litigious society has any impact on quality of food available to us.

 

[hatt]

They aren't pulling old butter off the shelf to send back to reprocess. That would cost more money than it saves. There isn't enough salt in today's salted butter to cover up old butter anyway.

 

[Food Scientist]

Originally Posted by hatt
They aren't pulling old butter off the shelf to send back to reprocess. That would cost more money than it saves. There isn't enough salt in today's salted butter to cover up old butter anyway.

And with traceability so important for recalls, recycling food like that would exponentially expand how much food to recall and would sink a producer financially.

 

[vavavroom]

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
Salted butter is old unsalted butter that was not sold. So it's already processed to extend its life.


If you had merely stated that salted butter had an increased shelf life over unsalted butter I would have agreed with you.