were notorious for serving meats and vegetables swimming in melted butter, and cooks throughout Europe exploited butter in a host of fine foods, from sauces to pastries Normandy and Brittany in northwest France, Holland, and Ireland became especially renowned for the quality of their butter Most of it was made on small farms using cream that was pooled from several milkings, and was therefore a day or two old and somewhat soured by lactic acid bacteria Continental Europe still prefers the flavor of this lightly fermented “cultured” butter to the “sweet cream” butter made common in the 19th century by the use of ice, the development of refrigeration, and the mechanical cream separator Around 1870, a shortage of butter in France led to the invention of an imitation, margarine, which could be made from a variety of cheap animal fats and vegetable oils More margarine than butter is now consumed in the United States and parts of Europe Making Butter Butter making is in essence a simple but laborious operation: you agitate a container of cream until the fat globules are damaged and their fat leaks out and comes together into masses large enough to gather Preparing the Cream For butter making, cream is concentrated to 36–44% fat The cream is then pasteurized, in the United States usually at 185ºF/85ºC, a high temperature that develops a distinct cooked, custardy aroma After cooling, the cream for cultured butter may be inoculated with lactic acid bacteria (see p 35) The sweet or cultured cream is then cooled to about 40ºF/5ºC and “aged” at that temperature for at least eight hours so that about half of the milk fat in the globules forms solid crystals The number and size of these crystals help determine the how quickly and completely the milk fat separates, as well ... damaged and their fat leaks out and comes together into masses large enough to gather Preparing the Cream For butter making, cream is concentrated to 36–44% fat The cream is then pasteurized, in the United States... eight hours so that about half of the milk fat in the globules forms solid crystals The number and size of these crystals help determine the how quickly and completely the milk fat separates, as well...consumed in the United States and parts of Europe Making Butter Butter making is in essence a simple but laborious operation: you agitate a container of cream until the fat globules