Kate’s Homemade Butter

When I started this baking project, I thought butter was butter. (I also thought flour was flour, but that’s a post for another day.) I did know the difference between salted and unsalted. I only bought unsalted, anyway, so I was set for baking.

Then one day I read a baker’s wild review of Kate’s Homemade Butter and thought, “Well, they make it down the road. I should buy that.” Once I saw that cute kid on the box with her overalls and her kerchief, I was sold. Then I tried it. It really does taste better. (And it looks better as soon as you open it, perhaps because Kate’s slow churns in small batches, never freezes its butter, wraps its butter sticks in foil, and uses only cream from cows that haven’t been given any artificial growth hormones.)

The New York Times, in this interesting article on the proper handling of butter (apparently improper butter use is a common newbie baker error) listed Kate’s unsalted as one of its favorite butters. Other publications have also raved about Kate’s butter.

Perhaps the biggest honor came last fall when Kate’s Homemade Butter won First Prize in the “unsalted butter” category at the 2008 World Dairy Expo Championship’s Dairy Product Contest.

I’m lucky to live a few miles from this great family business. But I hear that Kate’s Homemade Butter is available in much of the country, so look for that little girl’s toothy grin in  your dairy section and give it a try.