Butter - why does it taste so bad?

Sainsburys on the deli counter is farm produced and the best iv`e ever tasted.
Other than that WYKE farm produced butter from Somerset and for sale in Home Bargains.

In Stockholm airport waiting for a domestic flight to visit a university town in the north of Sweden I was fascinated watching several groups of students waiting to board the flight eating their picnic lunches.

They were spreading butter on crusty bread then passing round a salt cellar and giving the butter a liberal shake of salt.
Nothing else on the bread, just butter and lots of salt

I think that the key to tasty butter is salt.

That’s it really?

I still have flashbacks (nice ones) to some butter I bought in a French market in Burgundy a few years ago. There was a man on a very small stall and he sold unpasteurised milk and butter. This butter was so good I think we had scoffed it within a couple of days. We ran out of bread to spread it on.. Nothing has compared to that since.

I currently just buy supermarket salted butter. Never spreadable - there's just something about it that's not quite right.

I need to go to Burgundy and find this butter selling fella!

Thanks kitty
Tesco only seems to have the tubs.

Newatthis Has it occurred to you that the problem may not be the butter, rather that your sense of taste or memory of taste has changed. That has certainly happened to me over time.

The British spreadable butter I often buy has only rapeseed oil added.

The non-butter spreads favoured by dh (he never touches butter) contain the dreaded palm oil.

I'm fairly sure our Sainsbury's sell it callistemon.

I haven't seen Lurpak in a block for a long time, it only seems to come in tubs with additives now.

I like Welsh butter or Normandy butter, both salted.

We have bought Lurpak for years. Used to sometimes get Anchor but it seems too salty now.

I have tried other butters but I find some of them have a slightly rancid taste.

I think Anchor is the best, I would like to have the salted version but can’t.
Unsalted butter is pants.

The absolute best butter is Aldi West Country - I have eaten umpteen butters and this is by far the loveliest - be warned - they keep it on the top shelf ??

If it is spreadable, some thing has been added to make it like that. I have always used block butter and for more than 20 years it has always been organic. Lovely and creamy from cows feeding on natural pasture and hay.

I’d be thrilled with a Waitrose a 45min drive away! My nearest is about 2.5hrs away.

As it is, I travel about 30 mins to a decent supermarket.

Newatthis maybe we're going about this all wrong. Maybe we need to start looking at the breeds of cows producing the milk for the butter you like. Normandy cows are the smaller ones with lovely markings. They produce much creamier milk with a higher fat content and are responsible for a lot of the butter made in Northern France. Think this is why you notice the difference in taste.

All these posts are really interesting though and it's great to see that so many are really particular about something as seemingly straightforward as butter! (We need to start on cheese, next!)

Pity the Cornish +sea salt is only from Waitrose.

Because, there is only one Waitrose in Cornwall. I love salted butter, live in Cornwall and the store is a 45 min drive away.

We have cornish with seasalt from Waitrose - its lovely.

Thank you for all this. The president is good but it doesn't taste as good as the President in France for some reason. I'm going to try some of the butter with salt crystals. they also do this from Cornwall.

I remember kangaroo butter travelsofar but can't rem having any. You can still get Fernleaf butter, I think I saw it recently.
Have you checked at a local butcher's or deli' Newatthis? Some do butter.

I’ve never bought spreadable butter. What’s in it to make it spreadable?

My dd uses Lurpak spreadable which I don’t much like, I find that and President butter have a greasy mouth feel,

I keep my block butter soft by using an insulated butter dish from Lakeland. I used it when living in the tropics, when I popped it in the fridge overnight and brought it out first thing in the morning. Now, in the UK it just lives on the worktop.

Love Anchor butter. I would buy the blocks but i always forget to take out of the fridge in time so resort to the tubs. Anyone remember Kangaroo butter from Australia and Fernleaf butter.

I buy and love a Welsh farm butter sold by the farmer in a food market in Cardiff. You get it in a chunk wrapped in greaseproof paper. They sell salted and low salt.

We buy Welsh butter either Colliers or Dragon brands.

It doesn’t taste bad to me at all. I buy various brands,
but almost always British and salted. I positively dislike unsalted butter. As for Lurpak, I find it very anaemic. And I have to say I’m suspicious of any Danish butter or bacon, since the vast volumes they produce surely have to mean a lot of very intensive factory farming.

I like Lidl spreadable....butter and rapeseed oil.