When was butter first discovered

The first reference to butter in our written history was found on a 4,year-old limestone tablet illustrating how butter was made. It is made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk to separate the butterfat from the buttermilk.

Butter consists of butterfat , milk proteins and water. This is your best bet for cooking and baking. For many recipes, it is recommended that you bring the butter to room temperature first so that it better incorporates with other ingredients. The exception is pie crust, for which cold butter is a must.

Second, if you have access to really good cream — say from pastured Jersey or Guernsey cows — your homemade butter will be more flavorful, contain more healthy CLAs, and have a gorgeous yellow color. If you're able to source raw cream from a local dairy farm that sells reliably safe raw milk, all the better.

But in most states, raw cream is illegal to sell. Most likely you'll be using pasteurized cream, so try to find a brand that's not ultra pasteurized and is free of additives. Some so-called whipping creams have stabilizers added. Ideally you want an ingredient label that simply reads "cream.

As for equipment, anything that allows you to beat the cream will work, whether it's a jar with a tight-fitting lid that you shake, a bowl and whisk, an electric stand mixer, or a food processor. Avid butter makers contend that it's better to spin or concuss the cream end over end rather than beat it with paddles or blades. The former method is said to be gentler on the fat molecules and makes for a better-textured butter. In my humble experience, churning with a food processor creates a spreadable, well-textured butter, but the important thing is not to overbeat the butter once it has formed.

One final point worth mentioning, since it's often confusing to new butter makers: the buttermilk that's left over from sweet cream butter making is not true buttermilk — a cultured dairy liquid with a tangy taste.

Traditional buttermilk is the by-product of cultured butter making, whereas most buttermilk sold in supermarkets is actually low-fat milk that's been cultured with lactic acid bacteria. The milky byproduct of sweet cream butter is bland and not tangy, somewhat like skim milk, but without the protein content. If using a stand mixer, fit it with the whisk attachment. It's important when churning with a closed container, such as a jar, classic paddle churn, or food processor, that you leave as much headspace for air as you have volume of cream.

The air is essential for getting the cream to whip its way to becoming butter. Continue agitating the cream so it thickens further and then changes color from off-white to pale yellow; this will take at least 5 to 10 minutes, depending on your equipment. When it starts to look pebbly, it's almost butter. If using a stand mixer, you want to stop beating and drape a tent of plastic wrap over the bowl to enclose the whisk and top of the bowl so the ensuing liquid won't splash out.

It is thought that while traveling long distances, nomads would attach sacks containing milk to their pack animals and the cream was eventually churned into butter.

A Sumerian tablet from ancient Mesopotamia that dates back to 2, BCE illustrates rudimentary dairy production. The tablet depicts the milking of cows, and consequently, the making of butter. The discovery of butter-making had a major impact on the development of human culture. Dairy production provided a year-round source of nourishment for people.

Without it, our world would be a very different place. Butter rose to prominence in the Middle Ages, when it became a commonly-used product throughout northern Europe. Though the upper classes considered it peasant food, they also ate it periodically.

Back then, the consumption of butter was prohibited during Lent. What are butter ingredients? Butter is milk in a concentrated form. It contains fats, calcium, phosphorus, vitamins, protein and in some cases, salt. There are four general categories of fats, namely saturated, trans, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. The first reference to butter in our written history was found on a 4,year-old limestone tablet illustrating how butter was made.

Instead of cows, she writes, early butter came from the milk of yak, sheep and goats — the very first tamed beasts of our ancestors. Organic Valley Salted Butter. Horizon Organic. Lurpak Slightly Salted Butter. Fourth and Heart Ghee. Amul brand is a synonymous of butter in India, made of pure milk fat and a must grocery item of almost every Indian household.

Mother Dairy markets and sells Butter, Cheese and other edible milk products as well as edible oil under the brand name Dhara.

Butter contains fat in three separate forms: free butterfat, butterfat crystals, and undamaged fat globules. Many believe that ancient nomadic people first discovered the miracle of butter.

It is thought that while traveling long distances, nomads would attach sacks containing milk to their pack animals and the cream was eventually churned into butter.