What’s going on with butter?

December 28, 2023 by
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Every year since the early 2000s, I have made multiple batches of English toffee to give away during the holidays. For only the second time ever in this time span I encountered total toffee failure: the emulsion split, leaving me with a grainy caramel sitting in pools of fat. I chalked up the outcome to rushing the process and/or stirring too vigorously. However, the second batch was nearly as bad as the first, despite meticulously following the correct procedures.

I posted about this mishap in a private Facebook culinary group and one of the members suggested that the butter was the source of my toffee woes. The member, who lives in Canada, said that dairy farmers there recently started adding palm oil and/or palm oil industry byproducts to their cattle feed, a practice that has become increasingly common in dairy growing regions over the past decade. According to critics, this practice has resulted in detrimental changes to the butter’s characteristics. For instance, many consumers complained that the butter remained hard at room temperature.

Based on this feedback, I searched for additional complaints about the behavior of butter in cooking or baking and ran across a Reddit subforum titled Wtf is happening with butter, one of several subforums dealing with the subject. It seems that Costco members in the US recently noticed that their baked goods didn’t turn out the way they had in the past and blamed changes in Kirkland brand (Costco’s house brand) butter. Consumers reported that cookies spread too much, buttercream split, and pie crust was crumbly. The alleged issues with the Kirkland product point to an increase in the amount of water in the butter. Many people reported that once they switched to a different brand such as Land O’Lakes or Challenge, their baking problems disappeared. One Redditor said they started making their own butter from heavy cream to ensure better product consistency.

I often use Aldi butter in my everyday baking because previously I could discern no difference between that and Land O’Lakes or similar supermarket brands. I did notice a difference in premium butters such as a hyper-local brand, Hope Creamery Butter, which is noticeably creamier and tastier, but at almost $12.00 USD per pound, I save it for baked goods where butter is the star of the show, like puff pastry. When other ingredients or flavors are predominant, like chocolate in brownies, the quality of the butter is not paramount so I’ve been content with the store brand.

Recently, however, it seemed like the Aldi butter melted weirdly and felt greasier – more like shortening than butter. At first I shrugged off these observations, thinking that I just overlooked these characteristics before. But the more I used the butter, the more I felt that something was amiss. Even before the toffee disaster it seemed like my cookies and pie crusts were not turning out right. I thought I was just in a baking slump and needed to get my mojo back. But maybe it’s not me, it’s the butter. However, Redditors in the subforum complaining about Costco butter said they were not having issues with Aldi butter. Has anyone else noticed problems with the butter they’ve been using? Or am I really just in a baking slump?

Category: Food Online

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19 Comments

  • thegluttery  on  December 28, 2023

    This post could not be more timely. I made blueberry tarts two weeks ago, a recipe I have refined and used to make hundreds of tarts. Once I fill the shells with almond cream, I bake for twenty minutes, remove the tart ring, and bake for an additional fifteen for perfect browning. For the first time, the shells did not hold their shape. Every tart was oblong, with several broken. I assumed I had overfilled them and that they could not contain the expanding almond cream.

    Today, I made chocolate chip cookies. Another recipe I had made hundreds, if not thousands, of times. They spread slightly, refusing to hold their shape the way they usually do.

    Between the cookies and the tarts, I thought I might have a temperature issue based on unusual weather for this time of year. I never once considered it might be the quality of the butter. Tomorrow, I am going to buy one of the recommended “safe” brands from the reddit thread you linked and once I’ve baked with them, I’ll report back. This is insane. Thank you so much.

  • thegluttery  on  December 28, 2023

    I guess I should have mentioned: I was using the Kirkland brand unsalted butter. I intend to try Aldi, Challenge, and/or Land o’ Lakes, depending on what I can find.

  • Fyretigger  on  December 29, 2023

    I also experienced some odd behavior baking with Kirkland (salted) over the holidays. Four hours on the counter weren’t sufficient to soften the butter, but overnight in the butter dish was. Shortbread crust dough for a millionaire bar went from sandy to big gloppy clumps in a single pulse of the food processor. Half of my salted chocolate shortbread cookies came out of the oven with huge cracks in them — never happened before.

  • LeilaD  on  December 29, 2023

    Oh, thank goodness, it might not be me. I’ve been having baking issues since I moved last July. I thought it was the fact I’m about 500 feet higher in elevation (and a couple of quick fixes to my rice and the like helped my cooking)- but specifically, every year, Nestle Tollhouse cookies are a recipe I make several times during the season. I can make them in my sleep- the last two batches, one spread and was oily and the previous one was oily and (to my embarrassment) caused stomach upset. I’d noticed it wasn’t softening either. I’ve been using the Lucerne butter from Safeway.

  • Knitflit  on  December 29, 2023

    I too thought it was me! Never considered the butter to be the issue! I used Kirkland butter for the first time this holiday season for recipes I’ve made for decades. It did not soften or whip until creamy. I assumed it was too cold in my kitchen, even though it was on the oven (for protection from my cat) over night.

    Very intriguing article…and also disturbing.

  • averythingcooks  on  December 29, 2023

    Good morning Darcie! This post sent me on a search for your blog post from Feb 2021 about the “Mystery of Canadian Butter”…hard to soften, not as spreadable, rubbery/watery etc.

    This issue, triggered by comments from Julie van Rosendaal and ultimately nicknamed “Buttergate”, heated up in the Canadian Press. I just did a search for updates on the issue…there are tons of articles from 2021 explaining why palm oil was included in cattle feed – it plays a key role in maintaining the required milk fat content for the butter.

    This Marketplace article from 2023 is an interesting read on the findings of food scientists at the University of Guelph:

    “What testing 17 butter brands told us about the science behind ‘buttergate’ ”
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/marketplace/butter-tests-marketplace-1.5954569

  • Bloominanglophile  on  December 29, 2023

    I noticed a change in butter behavior (hate to tell you it was Land O Lakes) not when baking (have had too busy a year to bake as much as I would like), but when melting butter in a pan to saute. There is more sputtering in the pan, which seems to me like there is more water in their product than in the past.

  • ethedens  on  December 29, 2023

    My mother makes toffee every year at Christmas and it never turns out unless she uses Land O’Lakes. She’s had similar problems for a couple years now with both the Aldi and Walmart brand butters. It’s absolutely the butter. She used Challenge this year and had good results. Not sure if Land O’Lakes has changed.

  • anya_sf  on  December 29, 2023

    I thought I was imagining things. I’ve noticed with store-brand butter that used to be pretty good, that the weight was lighter than expected.

  • Kinhawaii  on  December 29, 2023

    I’ve lost my baking mojo for awhile so I can’t blame the butter entirely but I’ve had cookies, that I’ve made before, recently do odd things like crumble when they never did before. I mostly use Kirkland butter so now I’m rethinking that. This is really helpful!

  • jimkmaus1  on  December 30, 2023

    While I find anecdotal information useful in the cooking community, I need to see some testing results and company input to come to an informed decision.

    BTW, avid Costco shopper and cultured butter maker.

    • Darcie  on  December 30, 2023

      Know anyone with a gas chromatograph? 😉

  • Vanessa  on  December 30, 2023

    Yes, this ^^^. I’ve been using Trader Joe’s for year s, but this year …. oozing from cookies and pie crusts.

    I tried some Publix butter (on sale and I needed 4 poinds) and it was better though still a bit weird.

    Baking season is nearly over, but I’m 100% sure something has changed in the butter!

  • bittrette  on  January 1, 2024

    So is this happening in the USA as well? The article suggests that this is a Canadian problem, but most of the commenters are from the United States.
    My butter is taking a longer time to soften, but so far I’ve chalked that up to a cooler kitchen.

  • racheljmorgan  on  January 3, 2024

    The only butter I ever had that hardness problem with was 365 organic store brand butter from Whole Foods, around 2016. Truly bizarre and flavorless, uncuttable unless at room temp for many hours. Our recent butters from Aldi, Publix, and Walmart in the US have been good. Plugras is also same as ever.

  • melindagottlieb  on  January 5, 2024

    I believe problems may be encountered with any brand of butter depending on the region of the country you’re in. Many major brands use regional producers to supply their butter. Thus, one brand may be fine in one part of the country and not so great in another. I used my local supermarket brand for all my holiday baking this year and had no issues, but I live in an area with many dairy farms that probably haven’t incorporated palm oil or other spurious content into their cattle feed. It really is disheartening when the quality of products degrades to the point where you can’t even get a cookie to bake properly!

  • karaslady  on  January 5, 2024

    I had problems with my toffee, too! My first batch split horribly, and the second was weird but edible. I used 365 organic store brand butter from Whole Foods. Will switch back to Plugra which has been my gold standard. Darn – I liked the lower price, but not the results. Thanks for the info.

  • carciofino  on  February 4, 2024

    I found this post while trying to figure out why the all-butter pie crust recipe I’ve been using successfully for decades has started leaking butter when baked. I noticed it for the first time in December 2022 when I made my annual tourtiere and nearly set my oven on fire. I figured I’d screwed something up, but it’s just happened again (this year’s tourtiere wasdelayed due to Christmas Covid). I’m in Canada and the butter I used this year was Lactantia. Has anyone else had their pie crust leak?

  • bittrette  on  February 6, 2024

    How is baking season nearly over? It’s still winter, it’s still cold outside in the North Temperate Zone.

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