Fat Of The Land

Few countries hold butter in such high regard as France, as Lara Dunn explains

- Lara Dunn

Many will remember the unparalleled tension in French towns and supermarkets in 2017, when empty shelves greeted shoppers instead of freshly baked croissants and creamy pats of butter. Changes in EU quotas, problematic production in 2015/16 and low prices being paid to farmers by the supermarkets resulted in genuine fears for some of the best-loved elements of France’s produce. Things have stabilised somewhat today, but for a country that consumes around 8kg of butter a year per head – one of the highest rates of consumption in the world – the notion of running out must still be pretty frightening.

The much-loved creamy fat is a linchpin of French cuisine. For many, every day begins with fresh baguette and butter, but that’s far from the end of it. The fat makes up half of the average croissant, the Breton speciality Kouign-ammann (literally ‘butter cake’) contains 30% butter and, of course, let’s not forget Michelin-starred Joël Robuchon’s famously decadent pomme purée that took two hours for the chef to create and required an almost equal ratio of butter and potato and which he credited as being one of the dishes responsible for his fame.

Accidental discovery

The first documented mentions of butter date back to the very beginnings of Western civilisation. The name is thought to derive from the Greek boutyron, latinised to butyrum by the Romans. The story goes that it was discovered by accident, when a nomadic herdsman carried a sheepskin of milk hanging from his steed, and the jostling resulted eventually in the churning of the milk into buttery solids.