Butter and I have a relationship. We cannot live without each other. Growing up in Britain it just belonged to the way of life. There was english butter, irish butter and also salted butter. Mum always got salt butter, so it was just normal as a kid to spread salt butter with sweet jam – I know it sounds strange, but I really did not notice the difference. Of course she did not cook with butter, I discovered that myself. And then I moved to Switzerland, land of the cows with all their products, including milk from which butter was made. Unfortunately butter in Switzerland is quite expensive, very expensive. I think we have to subsidise our farmers, but no-one was going to take away my butter. I really thought with a cow population of one million it would be almost free of charge.
This is my weekly supply of butter, 4×250 grammes=1 Kilo and as you can see it is marked in the store as being budget butter meaning 3 Swiss francs instead of perhaps 3.50 for other butter and this is Cooking butter but rubbish. It tastes exactly the same as the expensive table butter. I also cook with butter and mix it with my vegetables, I am just a butter person.
I did try to use less butter. A friend of mine said she always uses coconut fat. It has a neutral taste and does not burn so easily in the pan. I tried it and she was right: very neutral and safe to use for frying, but, it was not butter. And so life continues on the buttery side. Eat a cake not made with butter, perhaps margerine. It is not the same and spreading margerine on bread for breakfast is an insult to the jam I find.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
One of my early memories is of my mother making the butter each week when the milk was delivered. She would strip the cream off the top, and beat it to butter, then hang it in a cheesecloth ball and let it drain into a bowl. Then came margarine, and finally butter as we know it now!
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My mum never did that. There was rationing after the war for some time. There was an article today that for the first time because of the hot weather and drought that the so-called Swiss butter mountain no longer exists and we will have to import butter.
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I had not heard of the “butter mountain,” though it makes sense that you would normally have a surplus of milk products — how interesting that it will now be necessary to import butter!
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One of my life’s biggest betrayals was when my mom started using corn oil margarine. I was a kid. I didn’t know, but when I grew up I figured it out. Swiss butter is wonderful and I hope the butter mountain rebuilds itself.
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I was never a friend of margarine. We have so many different types of butter, but to me they all taste the same.
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Butter, the other food group!
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That is definitely my group.
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You always respond to my comments .. perhaps you can answer a question I have … I have been watching Mary Berry on the BBC doing her cooking recipes, etc. She always says “double creme” … what is that exactly? I am not sure we have that in the USA .. also creme fraiche … is that what the Americans would call sour creme? I keep looking for the answer to that since she uses it in a LOT of her recipes. I am confounded. I tried her scones but not precisely her ingredients and it was a flop. It sure did not turn out like hers did .. I will say that … Thank you for any information on this subject. SLP …
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I often watched Mary Berry also, but being in Switzerland we have the German words. It all depends on the fat content it seems and double cream has the most fat. That is all I found. It is not sour cream.
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