Butter

When it comes to butter, a general distinction is made between two flavour variants or types – sweet cream butter and sour cream butter – and two production methods: traditional production in a butter churn and the method commonly used today in a butter-making machine.
Sour cream butter is made from soured milk, cream or whey cream. With the help of specific lactic acid bacteria, flavour compounds are produced which give sour cream butter its typical fresh taste. In the past, butter was predominantly produced as sour cream butter.
Sweet cream butter can be made from milk, cream or whey cream. Unlike sour cream butter, it is produced without the addition of lactic acid bacteria and has a mild, creamy flavour. It is ideal for making sauces, as it does not curdle as quickly as sour cream butter when heated.
Mildly acidified butter is sweet cream butter into which lactic acid bacteria or lactic acid are kneaded after maturing. This process is used to quickly mimic the character of slowly matured sour cream butter. Some farming organisations (e.g. Demeter) do not permit the method used to produce mildly acidified butter.

Production process
In the past, butter was made by leaving milk to stand for two days. The cream, which settled on the surface during this time, was skimmed off and then left to mature for a few hours before being churned by hand at a temperature of around 7 °C to 8 °C.
The churning process begins with the maturation of the cream; this serves, amongst other things, to ensure the optimal distribution of the milk fat. The cream is then churned; this breaks down the fat globules. The fat globule membranes rupture, the fat they contain is released and can now clump together. In the process, fragments of the fat globule membranes, water and some milk protein are trapped. The liquid ‘fat-in-water’ emulsion is transformed into a solid ‘water-in-fat’ emulsion. However, the majority of these non-fat components (whey) are separated out as buttermilk. The butter itself is finally kneaded into a homogeneous, smooth mass, which is then shaped and packaged. More than 20 litres of milk are required to produce one kilogram of butter.