In a recent Harris Poll study, commissioned by Vermont Creamery and conducted online among over 2,000 U.S. adults, nearly half of Americans (49 percent) are likely to use cultured butter – which has a richer flavor – over traditional butter when making holiday dishes this year, jumping to 65 percent among Americans ages 35-44. Nine in 10 Americans (86 percent) say it is important to use the ingredients when cooking or baking holiday dishes this year, with 1 in 4 (25 percent) saying it is absolutely essential.
"Throughout the past two years, consumers not only learned to cook new dishes for the first time, but also learned to love time in their kitchens, turning it into passion," said Adeline Druart, president of Vermont Creamery, in a statement. "Right now, we are seeing a continuation of the home chef trend with a different focus. People are making ingredient-forward dishes, having learned how to distinguish the difference that higher quality, premium ingredients make, growing demand for products such as cultured butter, and upscale food. They are increasingly unwilling to sacrifice taste for the dishes they work so hard to prepare."
Culturing food is a practice that dates back to the dawn of human existence yet is gaining newfound recognition in recent years, according to Vermont Creamery.
The company's cultured butter is made in the European style with pasteurized, fresh cream in a churn just like regular sweet cream butter, but with one additional step. After pasteurization, its butter makers add live bacterial cultures to fresh Vermont cream. The cream rests in a vat for twenty hours, optimizing flavor and thickening to develop rich notes of buttermilk and hazelnut, resulting in the primary difference between cultured butter and sweet cream, or American style. After fermentation, the cream is churned into butter.
Vermont Creamery's Sea Salt Cultured Butter sticks won an SFA Gold sofi Award.
Related: Miyoko's Creamery Launches Vegan Butter Cooking Channel; American Cheddar Comes of Age.