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Concentrated Butter is an industrially-made "clarified butter."
In France, it will be 99.8% butterfat. The water, lactose and casein protein are removed from the cream or butter: it is most efficient to start from cream or butter, but sometimes the process is started from milk. If it's made from butter, the butter will be unsalted, and it's best if the butter is a few weeks old. Any cream or milk used in Concentrated Butter will have been pasteurized first.
The separation is done using gentle physical techniques such as slow melting the starting butter first (so that taste / texture is not impacted), then decanting it and then applying centrifugal force, in order to remove as much of the water and milk solids as possible. In France, by law this separation process has to be physical, not chemical. In Canada, alkali chemical additives are permitted in the making of Butteroil.
Concentrated Butter can be processed to have varying melting points ranging from 50 to 104 F (10 to 40 C).
Most intended customers are industrial, for use in large-scale food manufacturing, and so packaging ranges from large food-grade cartons, barrels to tankers. When packaging Concentrated Butter, the air in containers is often replaced with nitrogen or carbon dioxide. It is used a good deal in the chocolate and pastry industries.
When solid, Concentrated Butter is very hard to spread. But, it can be processed to have varying melting points ranging from 50 to 104 F (10 to 40 C), making it easy to render it liquid again for pouring and spraying without changing the taste to that of "cooked butter."
Concentrated Butter stores well at room temperature because its water, lactose and casein protein are removed. This makes it good for third-world countries where refrigerated storage facilities aren't available or can't be relied on. There, it can be used to enrich milk made from powdered milk in order to make dairy products.
When combined with the correct ratio of water to restore a normal water / butterfat balance for butter, Concentrated Butter is called "reconstituted butter".
In the EU, a product's ingredients can still say just "butter" if concentrated butter has been used, though it can't add words such as "pure", "fine", or "fresh" to the word "butter". In the UK, the minimum fat content is 96% . In Luxembourg, the butterfat content is allowed to range as low as 90%, and still be called Concentrated Butter ("Beurre concentré").
Concentrated Butter, Milkfat and Butteroil
There is no clear agreement around the world on whether the terms "Concentrated Butter", "Milkfat" and "Butteroil" are synonymous, or slightly different. There's not even any agreement in English on how to spell them -- Milk Fat or Milkfat? Butter Oil or Butteroil? But even those who do distinguish between Milkfat and Butteroil will lump them all under "Concentrated Butter."
Here's how Canadian dairy officials, for example, delineate the difference:
- Anhydrous Milk Fat: In French, it is called "matière grasse laitière anhydre" (MGLA). It will be made from fresh cream or fresh butter, and be 99.8 % butterfat. No chemicals are permitted in the processing.
- Anhydrous Butter Oil: Can be made from cream and butter and can be of varying ages. The resulting product will be 99.8 % butterfat. Alkali chemical additives are permitted in the processing.
- Butteroil: Can be made from cream and butter and can be of varying ages. The resulting product will be 99.3 % butterfat. Alkali chemical additives are permitted in the processing.
Equivalents
150 g water + 850 g Concentrated Butter = 1 kg reconstituted butter with a butterfat content of 85%.
Also called:  Beurre Concentré (French) Butterkonzentrat (German) Burro concentrato (Italian) Mantequilla concentrada (Spanish)
Other entries for Butter
Beurre d'Isigny, Beurre de Baratte, Butter Stick, Clarified Butter, Compound Butters, Concentrated Butter, Cultured Butter, Dehydrated Butter, French Butters, Ghee, Light Butter, Margarine, Pasteurized Butter, Plugrá Butter, Raw Butter, Rendered Butter, Renovated Butter, Salted Butter, Semi-salted Butter, Spreadable Butter, Summer Butter, Sweet Cream Butter, Three-Quarter Fat Butter, Unsalted Butter, Whey Butter, Whipped Butter
Other entries for Dairy
Butterfat, Cheese, Milk, Nondairy Topping
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