Types of butter

The natural flavour of butter is irreplaceable! Whether you are baking a cake or sautéing vegetables - there’s a type of butter to enhance every food.

Butter types include:

Salted butter

Salted butter is the most common style of butter found in supermarkets. It has, at most, 2% salt added after the buttermilk has been drained off.

Unsalted butter

Unsalted butter contains no added salt. Reduced and low salt butters have about half the salt you'd expect in regular salted butter.

Cultured butter

Cultured butter is also known as Danish-style butter. It has a culture added to the cream before it is churned and is kept at a controlled temperature (usually overnight) while a slightly acidic flavour develops. Then, according to European tradition, no salt is added after draining the buttermilk.

Cultured salted butter

Cultured salted butter, typically Australian and not European, has salt added with the culture.

Clarified butter/ghee

Clarified butter/ghee is almost pure milk fat (at least 99.7%) and used mainly in cooking. This is because it will reach much higher temperatures before it begins to smoke or brown and there's almost no moisture to cause spattering.

Butter concentrate

Butter concentrate is mostly found in the tropics because of its excellent keeping qualities and high melting point.

Butter oil

Butter oil is used mainly in the manufacture of ice cream.

Dairy blends

Dairy blends are a mixture of butter and up to 50% of edible vegetable oils making the mixture spreadable straight from the refrigerator. Retaining the taste and naturalness of butter, they are a dairy alternative to margarine.

Reduced fat dairy spreads

Reduced fat dairy spreads comprise between 30% and 60% in total fat of which at least half is milk fat. The remaining ingredients being water, milk proteins, cultures, herbs, spices, gelatin, vitamins, sugar or salt.

Low fat dary spreads

Low fat dary spreads are table spreads with a total fat and oil level below 30% to which milk, vegetable proteins, flavourings, herbs, spices, vitamins, sugars, gelatins and starter cultures may be added. These spreads are not recommended for cooking due to their high moisture content.