Shopping for butter? Wondering what makes "the best" natural butter?

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November 5, 2024

It's that time of year when I find myself buying NATURAL BUTTER BUNDLES to stock my freezer with.

Why? The large amounts of cookies and pies that fill my house with delicious flavors is impending and inevitable. And the absolute worst thing for a holiday baker is to go to make a yummy recipe and find that you're out of butter! I gotta stay stocked (and after all if I don't use it all now, it's good for a year in the freezer).

When it comes to butter and baking, quality matters. A lot. It affects the color, the texture, and the flavor of your baked goods.

And, if you're a natural food shopper like me, there are some extra things to look for in your butter. I want to make sure I'm making food with the best nutrition and least toxins possible.

What makes the best natural butter? There are a bunch of factors, and I'm happy to report that MILLER'S A2/A2 BUTTER checks all the boxes.

Here are the top 6 things to look for when shopping for natural butter:

✔️ High Butterfat. Commodity and supermarket butter typically has 80% butterfat. It helps keep the price down. But, our butter and European butters have a higher fat content, from 82-85% butterfat. It's all about getting a good churn and washing out all that buttermilk. Higher butterfat means softer, smoother, melt-in-your-mouth texture without feeling greasy.

✔️ Pasture Raised + 100% Grass Fed = Best Nutrition. Butter is a good source of lecithin and is rich in various vitamins, including A, D, E, B12, and K2. When the cows are raised in natural health, these health benefits are supercharged, which means more of all the good things! Our cows are pasture raised and 100% grass fed.

*Side Note: Spring butter is known for having max nutrition. We make it for 4 weeks of the year, when the cows are eating first growth of pasture in the spring. It's the most yellow and the most nutrient packed.

✔️ Yellow Color. A natural yellow color is a sign that the cows are fed grass, not bland and subsidized grains like corn and soy. The yellower the butter, the better the butter. The yellow color comes from the beta-carotene (which your body converts into Vitamin A) in plants, so this is a distinct trait of butter from grass fed cows. Some conventional butters have added colors like annatto extract to make the butter superficially yellow.

✔️ A2/A2. Although butter is low in protein, it does have some. If you want to avoid the potential opiate effects and longterm health damage caused by the A1 beta-casein protein, then A2/A2 is the way to go. I also like to think of A2/A2 as the most heritage dairy there is, since A2/A2 cows weren't affected by a genetic mutation.

✔️ Additive Free. Supermarket butters may have sodium chloride (AKA food grade salt), artificial colors, artificial flavors like diacetyl, or other unnecessary additives. Yuck! And this is all to keep the same consistency every time and perhaps cover up cheap, unnatural farming practices. Our butter is made simply with cream and only cream. If we add salt, it's Celtic sea salt. It's truly natural and will vary from batch to batch.

✔️ PFAS-Free. Trying to move away from plastic food packaging? Me too! Butter wrapped in paper sounds great, but it has to be coated in something so it doesn't spoil. Most butter papers are coated in plastic and can have all kinds of weird stuff on it -- including forever chemicals like PFAS -- which in turn can transfer to your precious butter. Our butter comes in 1lb blocks and is wrapped in paper that's tested to be PFAS-free, and freezer-safe!

Want to learn more? Keep scrolling for some butter-related recipes and blog posts to help you become a butter expert. After all, you deserve to have all the info you need, so you can be a smart natural food shopper.

What are you baking this holiday season? I'd love to hear if Miller's butter will elevate your recipes. Comment below or contact us!

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RELATED RECIPES

Einkorn Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

A2/A2 All Butter Einkorn Pie Crust

Einkorn Sugar Cookies

Does varying yolk color affect the flavor of honest eggs?

As you know, we don't add any color to our feed. This is why our pastured corn & soy free eggs are called "honest yolk eggs". "Color" includes unnatural stuff like dyes as well as natural stuff like marigold and paprika. Nearly all egg farmers nowadays do this... even the natural ones. Why? People demand consistent color yolks, thinking it means a certain quality. Little do most know, yolk color is superficial now. At Miller's, we know this for a fact. Curiosity made us to send our eggs for testing, and there was zero nutritional difference in our orange vs yellow yolk eggs. What mattered most was the farming practices and quality of the feed, and our eggs came out on top for most tests. We really love having varying yolk color. It's an indicator of what the birds are eating. It tells our farmers how their pasture is doing. If the plants are too mature, not diverse enough, it's too wet or dry, or if chickens aren't eating the pasture, we'll see that with the yolk color! Now, we've had an array of responses since we removed the color from our feed. One baffling one is --- the light colored yolks don't taste as good as the dark colored yolks. Is this true? I mean, removing the color is only a superficial change. It shouldn't affect the flavor. Well, we needed to find out. So... we did a blind tasting on the farm a few weeks ago. Here's what that looked like: The results? The whole team agreed -- all eggs tasted the same! The biggest factor affecting egg flavor was the yolk to white ratio. The more yolk, the more flavor. It's spring, and our hens are out on pasture 100% of the time. An egg develops for about 6 weeks inside a chicken, so it takes some time. But... you should start to see darker yolks now. Have you noticed a change in yolk color? Have you noticed a flavor change? Would you prefer consistent colored yolks or honest yolks? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us 😊 PS: The egg shortage is 100% over, and we have plenty of eggs now!! That means egg bundles are back!

See a volcano of pickles! The pluses and minuses of natural ferments.

A customer shared his farm food order with us on Instagram. Thanks for sharing, Nick! It included this amazing video of the volcano that can erupt from our fermented pickles: What's going on here? Why so many bubbles? Conventional pasteurized vinegar pickles (you know, the kind that are considered "normal") don't bubble at all. What you're seeing is the fermentation. When fermented pickles are made, it's a very simple process. The following is mixed in a jar: Cucumbers, well water, celery seed, mustard seed, dill, garlic, Celtic sea salt, and whey. Then, the jar sits with a loose lid for 3-7 days, until it's done fermenting. The seeds and herbs are in there for flavor only. The cucumbers, water, salt, and whey are what make the magic happen. Note that there is no powdered culture added. Yes, whey is added and it has probiotics, but it simply helps jumpstart the ferment. Even without the whey, those pickles would ferment. It would just take a little longer. This is because raw veggies naturally have lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in them. When you mix them with water and salt, it creates the perfect environment for them to grow. Pretty cool, right? The living microbiology (the LAB) grow and multiply. They eat the naturally occurring sugars and starches in the cucumbers and produce CO2, a gas. The fermentation carbonated the pickle brine! The fermentation made the volcano! It's also a sure sign that there's plenty of good probiotic stuff for your gut in that jar. The white stuff is yeast (most likely KAHM yeast). Another thing to notice in the jar is how the liquid is whitish, not clear. There's nothing unsafe about it. Yes, you can eat it! It's a natural part of fermentation. You see, KAHM yeast thrives in acidic environments. As that probiotic goodness ferments and creates CO2, it also creates lactic acid. The lactic acid not only gives pickles their distinct sour flavor but also makes the brine acidic. KAHM yeast is naturally in the air. It will land on a ferment and think "Gee, this would be a great home." And then it grows. It typically makes a film on the top of a ferment, but it can also sink to the bottom. With volcanic pickles, it gets all mixed up in the brine and will eventually settle. Fermented veggies are an acquired taste. Nick, who shared the volcanic pickles video, reported that: "The pickles are absolutely delicious. I love them!" But... we sometimes get complaints about the flavor of the pickles and the white stuff. Is Nick's palate simply more accustomed to ferments? Were some jars of pickles actually off? It's really hard to say... especially when you're not there smelling and tasting it yourself. What I do know is that fermented veggies are an acquired taste. They're very different from the distinct pasteurized vinegar pickle flavor you likely grew up with. Fermented pickles have umami to them (think about that "weird" flavor in miso or a very sharp aged cheese). They have a lot of tang. They can even taste metallic. Some may feel a burn on their tongue (that's the lactic acid by the way). You may want to try making some at home (as I said before, it's pretty easy). That way, you can taste the flavor throughout the fermentation process and put it in the fridge when you think they're just right. Fermented veggies can last months in the fridge with proper maintenance. Here are a few tips to keep them in their best shape. Always store in the fridge. This will slow down the fermentation so they don't get overdone. If you leave them on the counter (especially pickles), they'll get quite sour and mushy pretty quickly. Never freeze ferments. They'll just get mushy. Make sure the veggies are always covered with brine. If the brine falls below the veggies, simply add more water and sea salt. So easy! If the veggies aren't covered, they can grow mold or dry out and become yucky. If there's too much KAHM yeast, remove it. KAHM yeast is perfectly safe to eat. However, it can have an off-putting flavor, especially when there's too much. If it's on the top of the brine, simply scoop it off. If it's all mixed up in the brine, let the jar sit for a day or two so it settles. Once it sinks to the bottom of the jar, you can remove the pickles and clean brine (leaving the white stuff at the bottom), clean the jar, and then put the pickles and brine back in. Voila! With this in mind, you might be wondering... Can ferments become unsafe? If a lacto-fermented veggie goes wrong, it will be pretty obvious. It may have a repulsive smell, flashy colors (like pink or black mold), or a foul flavor. While a normal ferment should have a sour, tangy smell, a bad ferment will smell putrid or rotten. This can be a little tricky, especially if you're new to ferments. The flavor can be wild! Often you simply need to trust your gut. Although getting used to ferments can take some time and know how, it's worth it. Why? They're just so darn good for your gut. They're packed with a range of lactic acid bacteria. Fermented veggies usually have bifidobacteria, too, which isn't prevalent in fermented dairy but is crucial for healthy digestion. When you have robust and healthy gut microbiology: The bad stuff simply can't grow. You're less likely to get sick. Your digestion is better overall, meaning that you get max nutrition from the food you eat.Your gut can better produce essential nutrients like short-chain fatty acids and vitamins B1, B9, B12, and K.You can experience less inflammation.Your gut-brain connection is better. You may find yourself in a better mood, with less stress. There's probably so much more, but those are the top ones for me! Do you eat or make ferments? Why or why not? Have you tried the pickles? What's your experience? I'd love to hear from you! Comment below (no account required - start typing for the guest option to appear) or contact us.

Why spring grass milk is the most healthy, creamy, yellow, and delicious.

Ahhhh, spring grass fed milk. It’s just the best milk of the entire year. You can see that it’s yellower and creamier. You can taste its full flavor and earthiness. In your gut, you just know that this milk is good for you. It’s simply the best. With modern testing, we can quantify that we’re not crazy for believing this or feeling this within our bodies. It’s scientifically true. Spring grass fed milk is the healthiest milk. Let’s explore.

Shopping for butter? Wondering what makes "the best" natural butter?

Here are the top 6 things to look for when shopping for natural butter:

More from the blog

Does varying yolk color affect the flavor of honest eggs?

See a volcano of pickles! The pluses and minuses of natural ferments.

Why spring grass milk is the most healthy, creamy, yellow, and delicious.

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Miller's Bio Farm, 523 Valley Road, Quarryville, PA 17566