a: 250g / 0.55 lb - soft butter
Rich in vitamin A and saturated fat, providing approximately 717 calories per 100g. Contains butyric acid and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in grass-fed varieties, which have been studied for potential health benefits.
About
Butter is a dairy fat produced by churning cream or milk to separate the butterfat solids from the liquid buttermilk. Soft butter refers to butter that has been brought to room temperature or slightly warmed, achieving a creamy, spreadable consistency while maintaining its solid structure. Conventional butter contains approximately 80-82% butterfat, 15-17% water, and 1-2% milk solids. The term "soft" describes the texture rather than a distinct product category, making it ideal for creaming, spreading, and incorporating into batters without melting entirely.
Culinary Uses
Soft butter is essential in baking and pastry-making, particularly for creaming with sugar to incorporate air into cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. It is used for spreading on bread, melting into hot vegetables, and finishing sauces with beurre blanc preparations. In cooking, soft butter can be easily combined with herbs and spices to create compound butters for steaks and seafood, or mixed into doughs for laminated pastries. Its malleable consistency makes it more convenient than cold butter for these applications while maintaining better structure than fully melted butter.