The Butter
History, experience and quality
To make one kilogram of butter you need 20 litres of whole milk.
Advancements in technology, in particular with regard to the hygiene, speed and reliability of production, have not significantly altered the main phases of butter production.
Butter is derived from freshly produced cows’ milk, which is left to stand overnight in separation tanks.
The following morning the cream that has risen naturally to the surface is separated from the milk beneath it, transferred to steel containers and left to stand for a day in cold storage at a temperature of about 4 degrees.
The final step involves churning: the cream obtained is put in rotating cylindrical containers called churns, where it is churned for a good half hour. The end result is the butter, which is then put into moulds made of wood or steel.
The COLOUR of the butter is pure white in the winter, while it tends to have a straw colour in the summer when the diet of the cows changes.
The FLAVOUR, though, should be as sweet as possible.
New butter retains its FRESHNESS for about seven days.
Butter can be used by people of all ages and, contrary to popular belief, it is easily and rapidly digested, with the exception of cooked butter. The Latteria Sociale Stallone produces about 600kg each day.
Did you know?
Butter has accompanied livestock-raising peoples around the world for longer than one might think.
The oldest "written" trace dates back 4,500 years and is engraved on a limestone tablet from the Sumerian era, preserved in the Baghdad Museum. The scene depicts workers milking cows on a large estate and producing butter in a primitive "zngola." This was nothing more than a large jar containing milk, in which the liquid was swayed back and forth.
Antiquity The oldest "written" trace dates back 4,500 years and is engraved on a limestone tablet from the Sumerian era, preserved in the Baghdad Museum. The scene depicts workers milking cows on a large estate and producing butter in a primitive "zngola." This was nothing more than a large jar containing milk, in which the liquid was swayed back and forth.
From Libro de Arte Coquinaria, a 15th-century cookbook written in the vernacular, dating to around 1460.
"Take, as mentioned above, one pound of peeled almonds and grind them very well. Mix them with half a glass of rose water and strain them through a cloth, pressing tightly. To help them bind well, add a little starch flour or, even better, half a glass of pike broth with four ounces of sugar and a little saffron to give it a yellow color. Strain everything as tightly as possible. Then, shape it like a loaf of butter and leave it to set overnight in a very cool place."
Maestro Martino da como "Take, as mentioned above, one pound of peeled almonds and grind them very well. Mix them with half a glass of rose water and strain them through a cloth, pressing tightly. To help them bind well, add a little starch flour or, even better, half a glass of pike broth with four ounces of sugar and a little saffron to give it a yellow color. Strain everything as tightly as possible. Then, shape it like a loaf of butter and leave it to set overnight in a very cool place."
The butter history
Butter is a very ancient product: Egyptians made it from the milk of farm animals and traces of this food have been found in cylindrical jars in the tombs of the 1st dynasty at Abydos. Originally, butter was used for purposes other than for food: from cosmetics to medicine, in particular as a healing ointment. There is a famous story of Caesar’s legionaries, well attested to in our region, who refused to eat asparagus with butter, because they considered it to be an ointment.
A curious detail emerges from late Middle Ages cuisine: the use of butter was much more prevalent in the regions of Southern Italy than in those of the North, where lard and oil predominated. This was in spite of the logistical problems involved; actually, it may have been precisely these difficulties, which gave it a degree of exclusivity, that prompted its use among the southern elite.
For many centuries, butter has been a symbol of refinement – just think of the French “cuisine au beurre“. Its high cost compelled people to use alternative oils for cooking such as those from linseed, rapeseed, kale and, for the more affluent, from walnuts.
In the kitchen butter and oil are traditionally viewed as interchangeable, often incorrectly so.