What is Butter?
The word “butter” originated from the Greek word “boutron” which translates to “cow cheese”. Butter is a smooth dairy substance that is made when you churn cream. It is made out of fat and protein components that are part of churned cream. It is made beating/churing the milk until all the fat seperates from the rest, then straining it until it forms a smooth and creamy substance which we call butter.
The Process of Making Butter
Making butter is a rigorous task. The process first starts by Pasteurizing and Homogenizing the milk which is basically the process of heating up the milk to a specific temperature so it can kill harmful bacteria that can lead to many harmful diseases such as listeriosis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria, brucellosis, and many more. Next, workers churn the cream, straining and working it until it transforms into the soft, creamy mixture that we enjoy. Then comes one of the most important steps; salting. Salt is what gives butter its rich, and flavorful taste. Without it, butter would be bland, almost like dough, lacking the saltines that we enjoy in its smooth, savory taste. Another additional option is flavoring the butter. Usually the butter is salted before the packaging but in some cases, it is done afterwards. After the salting and flavoring, the butter is refrigerated and boxed to make its rectangular shape. Refrigerating the butter makes sure it wont melt in its shaped form. The last step of making butter is packaging it. Workers put a layer of foil around the butter for packaging and thats it!
History
The production of butter has a long history. It traces back more than 4,000 years to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, where early people most likely accidentally discovered that milk could be churned to separate the butterfat from milk that butter is made from. In the time of the ancient Egyptians, butter was used not only as a food but also for a cosmetic and religious purposes. Later in medieval Europe, especially in the north, where the climate supported dairy farming, butter was consumed more universally, except it was sometimes banned during fasts. More people, as the years went on, helped to further develop methods for making butter, and the product slowly became crucial to European cuisine to the part where almost no cuisine could be made without it, particularly in France, Denmark, and the Netherlands. For example, croissants, Danish butter cookies, Dutch butter cookies, and many more.
The Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, a time where production was more efficient, brought a complete change in the way butter was produced, with the mechanical cream separator and the butter churn being two of the major innovations that made the process quite efficient, and also many other technology. Factory-produced butter became very common, and salted butter became the most common form because of its preservative qualities. In the 20th century, however, butter faced a heavy competition from margarine; another spread which was used on many dishes, which was cheaper and seen as a healthier alternative. To this day, people still debate about this topic, Butter or Margarine. But other than that, butter remained a key factor in the diet of many cultures, especially in Europe and parts of Asia.
After so many years butter is still one of the most heavily used kitchen ingredients and will be for many more years to come.