BORDIER BUTTER
BORDIER BUTTER
Be prepared to look at butter in a completely new way. It’s not just a mildly flavoured fat to spread on bread, or bake, baste or sauce with it’s a completely special ingredient in it’s own right. This butter can be appreciated in the way that we appreciate artisan cheese. It’s got character, texture and an elegance that enhances dishes that will make you believe everything really does taste better with butter!
Jean-Yves Bordier grew up in the world of cheese, the son and grandson of a butter and cheese maker. The farm was in the Franche-Comte famous for its Comte hard cheese, and where the fresh cream and butter was enjoyed from the milk of the Montbeliarde cow breed. He has been a cheesemaker & affineur for over 35 years and in 1985 he became a butter maker too when he acquired the La Maison du Beurre creamery founded in 1927 in Saint-Malo, Brittany. He mastered the art of kneading butter, a traditional 19th century method, and went on to develop techniques to tap and shape the butter but continuing to embrace old methods that respect the land, the animals and tradition.
Bordier butter is now used by top chefs around the world, creating dishes with his silky textured butter, some pure or with a light dusting of salt, others with aromatic, complex balance of flavours.
Normandy and Brittany milk is heavy and rich, perfect for those who love the dense creamy style of butter. Jean-Yves taught himself and rediscovered the art of remixing butter that was a tradition from the 19th century. Normal butter is made in a matter of hours. What makes Bordier butter so sublime is time. It takes Bordier three days as the cream is culturing and developing flavour.
After the Malaxeur, Bordier uses special grooved paddles to pound the butter, by hand, before forming it into the shapes requested by chefs for each individual order. The hand movements with the paddles are very specific and respects the texture.
Bordier butter has very noticeable seasonal differences. Summer butter is very yellow, because the cows are grazing on fresh grass and wildflowers which are high in beta carotene. Summer butter is silky and tender, and has pronounced savoury aromas. Winter butter is pale, like an ivory yellow, because the cows are eating dried grasses. The texture is more granular and brittle, and winter butter is sweeter.
LA FROMAGERIE delights in the complexity of butter – we love ‘a little bread with our butter’ – We have worked with Bordier butter for over 20 years and it sits proudly alongside butters from Charente Poitou and England in our dairy cabinet showcasing the regions and complexity in flavours and style, this is as much a part of our work as selling wonderful cheese.
It all starts with milk, and being able to enjoy the best. The thrilling pleasure of butter is also accented by Jean-Yves Bordier’s acute sense of taste when balancing other flavours into his butters. If you have a love of lobster or scallops, finish with the Vanilla Butter – you will be amazed. All the butters are wonderful on their own with crusty bread, but also cooking with them elevates fish, seafood and meats, even the Raspberry Butter with its sharp fruitiness is wonderful – although we also love to spread it onto warm scones too. Yuzo Butter over a piece of pan-fried duck breast. Garlic & Peppercorn Butter to finish a Tomato & Basil Butter stirred into a risotto or over a roast chicken, Smoked Salt over boiled charlotte potatoes… you get the picture! He is as they say, totally devoted to your bread!
Available in our shops & now online