Ingredient: Butter

Butter is a fat made by churning the cream of milk, most often from cows.

Due to its rich, creamy mouthfeel and sublime flavor that no other product can match, butter is the most preferred fat to use for many cooking applications, including everything from sauce making to baking, cooking steak, or even just spreading on bread.

The typical butter is unsalted and is categorized as a sweet cream butter, but you can also find salted butter with a small amount of salt added as a preservative.

Butter varieties include clarified butter and ghee, which are the pure, golden butterfat from which the milk solids and water have been removed.

Everybody’s favorite butter is the European one. It could have as much as 86% fat. It is more flavorful, contains less water than butter produced in other places, and is better for making flaky pie dough or puff pastry.

When used for sautéeing, butter complements and enhances the flavors of the food; it also adds complexity to the taste of sauces and contributes to the texture of baked goods. If you’re cooking with butter, you should bear in mind that it has a low smoke point at 350 degrees F; when cooking at temperatures above that, use a combination of butter and some other oil.