Buttering up
Hooray for saturated fat!
We were recently having a discussion via Twitter with Ellen about heirloom beans, Thomas Keller and butter. (What, you don't ever talk about famous chefs and pretentious food stuffs?) Ellen asked us if we knew of any local producers of artisan butter.
Alas, we did not. But we thought that you might. If we can come up with a handful of local butter makers, we'll put together a butter tasting and report the results.
photo: Flickr user Charles Haynes
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Comments
artisan butter?
... said Slacker on Apr 3, 2009 at 3:36 PM | link
Yeah, maybe not the best word to use. We're thinking small batches from cows that get to eat whatever's growing in the pasture.
... said Greg on Apr 3, 2009 at 3:39 PM | link
Not 100% sure but Meadowbrook Dairy might carry butter - they've got lots of other delicious milk based products.... their chocolate milk is like drinking a little bit of heaven.
... said Kate on Apr 3, 2009 at 3:41 PM | link
butter from cows??
... said -S on Apr 3, 2009 at 4:29 PM | link
i've been known to make my own butter from time to time. and mayonnaise. do i count as an artisan? (kidding, hehe.)
other than that i dont know of any local butter producers, but im glad you're bringing it up because i have looked into it in the past (of course i never found any, which is why i made my own. for fun).
... said Kim D. on Apr 3, 2009 at 4:33 PM | link
Ronnybrook Farm in Ancramdale (Southern Columbia County) makes their own butter, including a cinnamon toast flavor!
... said Alison on Apr 3, 2009 at 4:35 PM | link
Godiva and I would love to know about local butter. Might break us from our imported Amish butter habit!
... said komradebob on Apr 3, 2009 at 5:31 PM | link
As of the last time I was there, Garofalo's in Schenectady sold Amish butter in massive one pound blocks. I don't know if that qualifies as artisan, but it's good stuff. They also have the best damned Italian sausage you can get around here, it's kind of like Schenectady's little secret. Shhhhh!
(Pssst..take a right on Union St from Erie and take the first left after the railroad bridge, it's N Center St. There's a bend in the street and Garofalo's has been on that spot for decades and I only learned of them a couple of years ago.)
... said tim on Apr 3, 2009 at 6:19 PM | link
Hi guys,
It's fun talking beans and butter with you.
Did you ever get around to ordering those beans yet?
FYI, there is such a thing as artisan/artisanal butter. Lots of articles came up in a Google search.
Check this out:
http://tinyurl.com/c2t4v3
... said Ellen on Apr 3, 2009 at 10:27 PM | link
http://ridiculousfoodsociety.blogspot.com/2008/11/homemade-bacon-butter-toast-shall-never.html
The above link is to a post I did about what I did with some homemade blender-butter. It is pretty easy to make your own pseudo-butter, so anyone with access to local cream can be an artisan butter maker. P.S. the bacon butter I made was divine.
... said Mr. Dave on Apr 4, 2009 at 7:26 AM | link
Email the co-op. I know they do carry some local butters from time to time. Meadowbrook doesn't make butter- just milk and cream. They will deliver sour cream, butter, juice, etc with the milk, but he buys it from other producers.
... said Lucy on Apr 4, 2009 at 1:39 PM | link
I bought a great one-pound block of Amish butter at the co-op a while ago, but it came from Ohio. Delicious, but not local.
I'm actually rather surprised that there's no closer source...I'd buy if the price were within reason.
... said LB on Apr 4, 2009 at 7:19 PM | link