Better Butter 101

Hey, butter fanatics! In case you haven’t heard, Minerva Dairy is America’s oldest family creamery. As such, we have a long history of better butter making, five generations of butter fanatics, to be precise. Our story dates back to 1894! 

From day one, Max Radloff, our Founder, aimed to make the best butter around and made it his life mission to perfect our family’s recipe. What Max created was an 85% small batch, slow churned butterfat butter. Which, if you’ve ever wondered why our butters are creamier, richer and more flavorful than other brands, it’s due to that 85% butterfat composition.  

What is butterfat?

It might seem like a simple fridge staple, but the makeup of butter plays a huge role in the flavor, texture, and quality of your recipes. 

Not all butter is created equal, trust us! You’ve probably found yourself in the grocery store aisle looking through all of the variations of butter and wondered what they mean. You’ve also likely noticed that certain butters have a higher butterfat content than others. 

Butterfat is the natural fat that is found in milk and dairy products, so the more butterfat, the better. 

Why is our butter slow churned?

Making our butter in smaller batches and churning it slowly results in a thicker, creamier, and richer butter than that made in high-volume factories where speed pumps trap air in the butter. When air is trapped in the butter, it loses texture and flavor. By making ours in smaller batches and churning it slowly, we maintain that flavor and texture making a higher quality product.

So, what makes our butter so much better?

Today, we still pack our 85% butterfat butter in 2-pound rolls, and in 8-ounce rolls and quarter sticks like generations before us did. And we still create our butter in small, slow-churn batches, using milk from local pasture-raised cows. Plus, our butter is free of anything artificial, so none of that bad stuff that you can’t pronounce on the ingredients list! 

After 125 years of making butter, we’re confident that we create better butter simply because we’re better at making butter.  We’ve stuck to what we know best, and therefore, we still produce the type of butter that launched our family business.

We hope you enjoyed our Better Butter 101 blog. For some delicious recipes featuring Minerva Dairy’s better butter, head to our Recipes page. Be sure to keep up with our latest creations through our Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram page and our top tips through our blogs.