[HN Gopher] One of France's oldest butter producers makes 380 to...
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One of France's oldest butter producers makes 380 tons per year
[video]
Author : zdw
Score : 125 points
Date : 2022-12-03 15:31 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| [deleted]
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Wow, amazing they still use the butter paddles to shape and mold
| the butter manually.
|
| There is a great series on YouTube about a Victorian-era cook in
| an aristocratic house, they had an episode on butter,
| https://youtu.be/DV7hop4m0YQ , and the paddles and molding
| process looked exactly the same as the beginning of this video.
| AlanYx wrote:
| They're using the paddles mostly for the look of the end
| product, judging from the patting machine processing shown at
| the beginning of the video.
|
| In Elaine Khosrova's book, "Butter: A Rich History", IIRC she
| claims that there is a difference in consistency when wooden
| paddle handling and shaping is used exclusively after the
| churning stage. That's not really what they're doing here;
| they're just giving the look of it having been done.
| Understandable though if they're producing so much.
| tmilard wrote:
| Nice to see someone so in love and dedicated to a single product.
| sendfoods wrote:
| Eater has been releasing some incredible food-related mini-
| documentaries! This one is great, too. Gotta get my hands on some
| of this butter
| jcims wrote:
| I just want to dip a spoon in at every step and sample it.
|
| About two years ago I bought just about every butter at the local
| grocery and started sampling them. (COVID hobby i guess) and it
| completely changed my relationship with butter. I found a few
| that were clear favorites...to the point where one of them I can
| slice off a thin pat and just eat it neat.
|
| Butter in the abstract is loved, but somehow it has been
| relegated to commodity status (at least around here). It's fun
| digging into it and realizing there's a whole landscape out
| there.
| kleinapple wrote:
| Could you share the fruits of your labor with us?
| rhapsodic wrote:
| Would you mind sharing which brands were your favorites?
| oppositelock wrote:
| This really brings back memories of my childhood. I grew up on
| a small family farm, and all of our butter came from the cream
| from our own cows. Not only are there huge differences between
| kinds of butter, there are also huge seasonal differences
| between the milk produced by cows, and hence, the butter. When
| dandelions are in bloom, it's going to be yellower and more
| fragrant, and definitely more sour when the sorrel is
| sprouting. It was always a surprise what you'd get, even when
| using the same process.
| sophacles wrote:
| I remember when I first learned that butter is more than "just
| butter". In my case I was at the local import shop and the guy
| working the cheese counter offered me a sample of some cheese
| he was recommending. I said "oh that would be good on a slice
| of bread with some butter and a bit of thyme". His response was
| "of course, but which butter?", and proceeded to walk me
| through a rapid crash course in butters with samples. I
| remember it well because we ended up with a group we called
| "butter club" - a group of foodies that took turns hosting
| dinners and all recruited by the question "of course, but what
| type of butter?"
|
| Such a fun little slice of "the world is a big place".
| joshu wrote:
| If you're in the South Bay and maybe SF, the Frenchery imports
| and distributes the butter from Bordier. It is very, very good.
| nsenifty wrote:
| Claudia Romeo from Food Insider interviewed the super
| enthusiastic owner of this place. https://youtu.be/ZyXUzhTn0kI
| gjvc wrote:
| This is a much better watch, and features Jean-Yves Bordier
| before he retired.
| frozencell wrote:
| Why are there many post about France on HN?
| SebJansen wrote:
| Why are there many posts about the US on HN?
| zahma wrote:
| That stuff is delicious.
| sctgrhm wrote:
| Very fun to see this here ! I've been to Bordier's shop in St
| Malo, they do make lovely butter. If you know a bit about France
| and Brittany, you'll know that "les bretons" are very much fond
| of their butter. Check out how they make the famous kouign amann
| and if you get a chance, do have a taste if the quantities of
| sugar and butter don't put you off ;-)
| cwizou wrote:
| Even as a "Normand", I have to agree that this indeed lovely
| butter ;)
|
| To give a bit of context, Bordier is considered very high-
| end/premium butter that you find mostly at cheesemongers (the
| large ones you see in the video, they get cut on demand) and
| Michelin star restaurants (the small cones for example). It's
| not particularly cheap, but unless you have a local small farm
| around (doing it the old way, which is probably not much of a
| thing), it's about as good as butter can get.
|
| I stumbled upon that video a few days ago and was a bit
| surprised that even their "standardised" products (the
| "plaquettes", aka the rectangles you'll see around the end with
| striations on them) were still shaped manually.
| bombela wrote:
| In the bay area, mademoiselle Colette has amazing kouign-amann!
|
| They use beurre d'Isigny too.
| nestorD wrote:
| I was surprised to discover that several cafes in Berkeley
| carry kouign-Amann!
| galgot wrote:
| Btw, is salted butter a Brittany thing ? Here in my local
| epicerie in Paris suburb, can only find "Demi-sel" :(
| sctgrhm wrote:
| The three basic butters would be "doux" (unsalted), "demi-
| sel" and "sale" although the latter does seem to be harder to
| find in your run-of-the-mill markets and epiceries outside of
| Brittany.
| Fiahil wrote:
| Ah ! I live within 20km of their factory. I would not have
| expected this on HN.
|
| Their butter is, indeed, very good. I always get one of the first
| spring butter, when the cows get the fresh grass. Creamy and
| absolutely delicious !
| jmcgough wrote:
| yesss I love Bordier, showed this to my partner recently to
| explain to her why I love nice imported French butters. Traveling
| there really made me fall in love with French food and the
| mentality behind a lot of it.
|
| Part of what Europe does right is its legal certification process
| for traditionally made foods, "protected designation of origin" (
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_designation_of_origi...).
| At nicer import stores you can find San Marzano tomatoes with a
| DOP stamp, so you know it's the real deal. In America we've had a
| few decades of a race to the bottom, where quality slowly
| declined in order to generate more profits, until what we have
| now is unrecognizable from what it originally was.
| riffraff wrote:
| while I'm a big supporter of EU PDO labels they are not
| perfect, they (generally) do not guarantee quality, and they
| have the negative effect of "crystallizing" something, which is
| a bit sad and paradoxical. Still, better than nothing.
| Qahlel wrote:
| | crystallizing
|
| can you please explain what you mean by this?
| wnissen wrote:
| Once you get a product, like Camembert, or a wine like
| Burgundy, with a big AOP apparatus around it, there is
| little room for experimentation. In Burgundy you can't
| plant anything except Chardonnay for white wine that's
| going to be labeled Burgundy. Someone has an idea that
| sauvignon blanc might do well in a famous vineyard? Too
| bad, instead of Grand Cru Burgundy you're going to have to
| sell it as generic "Vin de France", which is typically box
| wine.
|
| If anyone hasn't tried AOP French butter, it is really
| wonderful. The cows are pastured or fed forage, no grain,
| so it has a lot of flavor. There's a reason the French
| enjoy tartines and "beurre jambon" (sandwiches with
| preserves and ham, respectively), with good bread and
| butter it's a revelation. Bordier is rightly famous but
| any, e.g., Beurre d'Isigny is going to be worlds above 99%
| of butters made in the US.
| telesilla wrote:
| >Bordier is rightly famous
|
| Oh, the smoked butter (sel fume) from a small specialist
| farm in Bretagne.. stuff of dreams.
| ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
| Beurre fume or sel fume? (Is the salted butter itself
| smoked, or is it butter made with smoked salt?)
| telesilla wrote:
| I believe it's sel fume: salted butter, using smoked
| salt.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoked_salt
| sujinge9 wrote:
| They probably mean that the certification requires very
| rigid processes which means any variation would not get the
| stamp of approval so innovation and experimentation is
| discouraged.
| cmarschner wrote:
| There are plenty of examples where the young renegades
| veered off and produced their own products in an AOC or
| DOC region. It just means the onus of marketing is upon
| themselves.
|
| It just makes more sense to create a brand that binds
| hundreds of producers together by standards. Everyone on
| average is better off.
| pj_mukh wrote:
| Where do you buy this imported butter in America?! I must know.
| rajamaka wrote:
| Small specialty international stores, where everything is
| stupidly expensive but also stupidly delicious.
| soperj wrote:
| > At nicer import stores you can find San Marzano tomatoes with
| a DOP stamp
|
| I can get these at Costco
| xwolfi wrote:
| Yeah the food situation in the US is pretty sad. I rmb going
| there in an exchange and the family dad beeming with pride
| "look I bought you a French baguette", and suffice to say... it
| was neither French nor a baguette lol. It barely qualified as
| food for animals.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| I live in a US city with a population over 2,000,000 that's
| seemingly incapable of producing what would be a _very
| mediocre_ loaf of bread in Paris, for under $12. Actually-
| good bread simply cannot be had--there isn 't any. One
| consequence of this is that it's impossible to get a decent
| sandwich here for anything but crazy-high prices.
|
| And don't get me started on the croissant situation. Ugh.
| They're all too-big and disgustingly doughy (90% of them are
| in this category), or burnt.
|
| I have no idea why this is the case, but it is. Like I know
| baguettes are price controlled so you can't compare those,
| but I mean any bread at all that's decent and somewhat
| affordable--simply not a thing here. You'd think someone
| could do it, but evidently not.
| spockz wrote:
| I have been to the USA only twice, to San Francisco and to
| New York, and the absence of flavour and substance in the
| food is what really stuck with me. Everything was so bland
| and generic and non filling. The two only exceptions were a
| cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, and a chowder in some
| small fish shop. And the latter only because I never had it
| before.
|
| I can really imagine all portions being over sized and
| saturated with fat and sugar in an attempt to (over)
| compensate with all its consequences.
|
| And yes, proper fresh French baguette is worth a meal on
| its own.
| renox wrote:
| Unfortunately even in France quite often a French
| baguette isn't so 'proper', but when it is mmmmh.
|
| I think I'll never forget the croissant I ate around San
| Francisco, I had never seen such a big croissant! When
| you think about the amount of butter there is already in
| a normal croissant.. This one had probably enough
| calories for half a day.
| akiselev wrote:
| It's something that I and almost every immigrant I know
| struggles with. I moved to the US when I was a small
| child but even I've got tons of memories of what tomatoes
| and blueberries are supposed to taste like. Every
| household in my extended family grows a lot of their own
| food and I'm in the process of building out a green house
| around my existing hydroponics setup to extend the
| growing season to all year. For next year we're debating
| buying a whole cow from a local rancher to split amongst
| the family so we can have some semblance of control over
| how the meat is grown.
|
| I feel especially bad for those who immigrate from
| tropical countries like Costa Rica. The quality and
| variety of fruit there is completely insane compared to
| the bland trash we have in the US.
| version_five wrote:
| I live in Montreal (a city with a large French influence)
| and am regularly in France, and there is no comparison
| between the bread or butter we get in Montreal vs what is
| available everywhere in France. If you look you can find
| decent bread - Montreal has the best overall bakery scene
| I'm aware of outside France. I haven't found good butter
| yet.
| ska wrote:
| Butter in produced in north america seems to be mostly
| pretty bad. I think it has a lot to do with how milk is
| marketed, low price is everything. So the dairies are
| dominated by volume-over-quality, a ton of holstiens and
| whatever cheapest feed can be found. Starting from there
| doesn't lead anywhere good, for butter or cheese.
|
| A friend who lived there (Montreal, or maybe it was when
| they were in Ottawa?) told me the import duty on European
| butter was 300%. So you can get some good imports, but
| super expensive. And the local "artisinal" stuff is
| mostly not as good as even KerryGold but also stupid
| expensive, because they only compete with those imports.
| boc wrote:
| I mean, it's the same reason you can't find a great mission
| burrito in Paris. Every city has its own food culture.
| thfuran wrote:
| So you're suggesting that a main feature of US food
| culture is shit bread?
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > So you're suggesting that a main feature of US food
| culture is shit bread?
|
| I don't know if GP was suggesting it, but it absolutely
| unironically is. At least from the perspective of anyone
| who thinks of bread as a standalone element; bread as a
| neutral canvas for other elements is fairly central to,
| at least, many of the distinct American food cultures.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| I mean, I'm not complaining that our foie gras is
| lacking, or our sushi's not very good. Bread's pretty
| important across a lot of cuisines and my city's
| bizarrely terrible at it, for some reason. Zero places
| here make _really_ good bread, and the few that achieve
| "OK" charge so much one hesitates to eat it, rather than
| preserving it in a display case to impress guests.
| buzzdenver wrote:
| What do you expect from a country that came up with the
| saying "best thing since sliced bread", when sliced bread
| is the worst :)
| houplaboom wrote:
| It's been 35 years since the price of baguette is no more
| regulated in France.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| Perhaps my French-born French professor had outdated
| information :-) I did find the prices to be notably low
| and identical everywhere when I visited, but maybe that's
| more a kind of cultural habit or expectation, than law,
| these days.
| 0_____0 wrote:
| I am a fellow USian, who is haunted by the first good
| baguette they had. Paris, December 2012. Only half of the
| loaf made it to the hostel. I still vividly remember how it
| felt to tear that first piece off of it, the delicacy of
| the crust, the crumb, the warmth and aroma. I remember it
| better than the first time I had sex, not a joke.
| [deleted]
| rexreed wrote:
| Meanwhile there's a cream shortage here on the east coast US! The
| price of cream has gone up substantially and was entirely
| unavailable during Thanksgiving weekend in my local area. No
| heavy or light cream whatsoever at any store. And now it's 2.5x
| the price it usually is.
| bombcar wrote:
| It's amazing how local diary still is for many things.
|
| During covid my parents could barely get milk and meanwhile we
| were drowning in it.
| rexreed wrote:
| Even worse - dairy farms here had to dump milk due to
| overproduction because there wasn't enough capacity for milk
| processing to turn into cream and other products. Something
| is really broken in dairy supply chain and the production
| lines here. Cream is still not available in our region and
| hasn't been for months.
|
| Some crazy stuff in this article by an Ag producer:
| https://agmoos.com/2021/12/10/supply-and-demand-are-the-
| real...
|
| And competition between cheese, cream, ice cream makers for
| tight milk availability: https://nypost.com/2022/10/03/heres-
| why-the-us-is-facing-a-b...
| bombcar wrote:
| Yeah, and I'm not sure all of those things can be
| effectively shipped very far (perhaps cheese and ice
| cream).
|
| Around here milk is a _bit_ higher than before, but there
| 's no shortages of anything cow related.
| turtledragonfly wrote:
| "we do everything by hand"
|
| ... proceeds to demonstrate large churning machine (:
|
| No, I know they're doing a much more manual process than most
| such factories. I think even the Amish use automation for
| churning.
|
| For reference though, 380 tons is actually a smallish number.
| Seems France produces about 1000x that much in total, per year,
| not to mention other countries.
| megablast wrote:
| > 380 tons is actually a smallish number
|
| Um, did anyone think any different??
| mrtksn wrote:
| By hand usually means using machinery to do something the
| traditional way. People can do very little without machines.
|
| The difference is that it's not a mass production process that
| usually requires special chemicals and treatments to keep the
| ingredients in certain state to run high speed high yield
| process.
|
| It's like the hand made toys that are actually made using power
| tools, knives, hammers etc.
|
| as long as you don't alter the process but just get help from
| machines to speed up things or increase yields, it's handmade.
| dhosek wrote:
| I was thinking the same thing. It's a bit over a ton a day,
| which is 250 gallons of milk (well, probably a bit more
| assuming that it takes more than a pound of milk to make a
| pound of butter). Kind of like the scene in the first Austin
| Powers movie where Doctor Evil demands ONE MILLION DOLLARS! and
| the world leaders laugh.
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