Cultured butter is made in the European-style with pasteurized, fresh cream in a churn just like regular sweet cream butter, but with one additional, very important step.

How it's made

After pasteurization, our expert butter makers carefully add live bacterial cultures to our fresh Vermont cream. The cream rests in a vat, where it thickens and develops wonderfully tangy flavor notes of buttermilk and hazelnuts.

This is the source of the flavor difference between cultured butter and sweet cream, or American-style butter. After the fermentation, the cream is churned into butter.

Making cultured butter is much like making wine, you want to ferment your cream like your grapes, slowly, to produce the best aromas.  The longer you culture — the better. 

The hallmark of Vermont Creamery’s cultured butter is its butterfat content, which is higher than the American legal standard of 80%. We craft two formats of cultured butter: 82% sticks and 86% rolls and baskets.

The benefits of higher butterfat

Higher butterfat means a lot for the home cook.

Our cultured butter has a high smoke point, meaning it can be cooked at a higher temperature before it burns. A higher smoke point creates the perfect brown sear on a steak, and is ideal for sautéing fish, vegetables or poultry. 

Bake the difference 

In addition, higher butterfat does wonders for baking. Ever wonder how croissants get their cloud-like, fluffy layers? Butterfat. Are you still trying to unlock the secret behind a perfectly flakey pie crust? The answer is butterfat.

Our cultured butter also has less moisture than sweet cream butter, which also boasts great results in cooking and baking.

Looking to discover the difference cultured butter can make? Find our products in a store near you and get cookin’ with a few inspirational recipes to get you started.

Try these: 

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Brown Butter Stuffing

Herbed Pastel with Morel Mushrooms

Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut Tart