Is Plugra really worth it?

by Nicole Weston, Posted Mar 5th 2006 @ 11:53AM

"European style" is a descriptor applied to butter more and more often these days. One of the most popular brands, Plugra, is appearing in more and more grocery stores alongside the regular butter, rather than being confined to the specialty stores it originally appeared in. The difference between the European-style butters and standard butters is the butterfat content. Regular butter has 80% butterfat and 20% water, while butters like Plugra have about 2.5-3% more butterfat. This gives them a slightly creamier, richer taste. In a direct comparison, the flavor difference is noticeable on toast, which is the most convenient way to taste-test butter without taking a bite out of the stick.

But is the difference noticeable when cooking or baking? For cooking, unless you are making a particularly buttery dish, I have to say that I could not tell the difference. Baking is another matter. A taste test between two batches of chocolate chip cookies (made with the same recipe) using both normal and European-style butters revealed that the European-style, higher butterfat cookies had a more buttery taste. The cookies were slightly more delicious than the ones made with standard butter because of the enhanced butter flavor. Especially considering that the prices for the two types of butter are much close than they were 5 years ago, it is definitely worth using Plugra or another European-style butter over the standard butters.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Filed Under: Raves & Reviews, Stores & Shopping, Food Quest, Ingredients, Methods
Tags: america, baking, butter, butter taste test, butterfat, dairy, europe, european butter, european style, expensive, Food Quest, gourmet, ingredients, is expensive butter worth it, plugra, rave, stores-and-shopping, taste test

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-05-2006 @4:13PM Miranda said... Plugra is cheaper than regular national-brand butter here in Chicago. That is, it's $3.49/# at Trader Joe's while the vastly inferior Land o' Lakes is $4.00 + at Dominick's. There are other, cheaper butters at TJ's but it's a good way to justify the purchase.

At The French Pastry school, Plugra is the only butter we use. All of our recipes are formulated for a butter that is 82% fat, which Plugra is. As you said, Nicole, for regular cooking the butter doesn't necessarily make a difference, but with pastry, which is akin to chemistry in many ways, that extra 2%-or-so of fat can make a significant difference especially in things like ice cream.
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3-06-2006 @3:35AM Berkana said... You know what beats Plurga? 100% milkfat. If you take butter, melt it down and keep it on the heat until all the water boils out and the milk solids fry in the milkfat until a rich dark brown (after the second foaming), you get caramelized butter ("beurre noisette" in French, "ghee" in Indian subcontinent dialects). Brush a bit of that on toast and sprinkle a wee bit of fine sea salt, and you'll probably never bother with expensive half-way measures again.

It's even better on seafood and popcorn.
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