Brittany’s butter is special, most often salted, in particular using salt from Guérande. There are two reasons for that. First, butter is mainly milk (in particular, cream) and Brittany is a big milk producer. Secondly, in the past, the region was exempt from the salt tax. Brittany brought these two products together to ensure that its butter would keep for longer. That’s also the reason why Breton butter retains all the flavours of the milk.
Butter that’s described as ‘beurre fin’ or ‘beurre extra-fin’ is made from pasteurised milk, whereas raw butter comes from non-pasteurised milk that can be kept for a shorter time but has a richer range of flavours. Butter referred to as ‘de baratte’ is made by the age-old technique of churning the cream in a wooden churn. Depending on the amount of salt, butter is classed as ‘half-salted’ (between 0.5% and 3%) or salted butter (more than 3% and possibly containing salt crystals).
Breton butter owes its fame to the cows that are carefully chosen for their milk quality. For example, milk from the Pie Noire breed, which almost became extinct during the 1970s, is well known for its rare flavour. The Froment du Léon breed provides butter with a unique orange tinge.
Raw or cooked (between 40°C and 120°C), Breton butter has many uses in the kitchen. When you’re making pastries, it’s worth knowing that the flavour of butter doesn’t change when it’s cooked. When eaten in reasonable quantities it’s not fattening. It’s also good for health because it has high levels of vitamins A, D and E.
Because Brittany is so famous for using butter in cooking, you might get the impression that all Breton food products contain butter. But there are certain specialities that have butter as the main ingredient: the famous kouign-amann, which literally means ‘butter cake’, salted butter caramels and butter biscuits called ‘palets bretons’
In Spézet, in the Finistère department, on the feast-day of Notre Dame du Crann on the Sunday following Whitsun, you can go and admire a gigantic mound of butter that has been magnificently sculpted and placed on the altar of the chapel.
