Even though this butter is described as 'lactic' what they ACTUALLY mean is that it's pure Buffalo Butter! Unique and rare, this is a special treat for anyone who values authentic flavours in South Asian cooking!
Ah, the noble water buffalo. Here's one we made friends with back in 2018 when we were touring round the south of India (Kerala). People just tie them (or cows) up to roadsides that have a suitable amount of grass and leave them there for a while to do their thing, eventually coming to move them when (literally) greener pastures are discovered. This one was called Claudette.
We will do a proper post on buffalo vs cow butter but the two main things to know about it for the purposes of this review are: a) buffalo milk has a high fat content but the fat globules store beta carotene differently to cow milk and thus, no matter how much plant matter the buffalo eats, the butter will always remain pure white and b) the definition of 'lactic butter' varies widely depending on the geographical origin of the research.
For those who are lactose intolerant, sadly, buffalo products do not contain any less lactose than cow products and may even contain more. But we will research and report back properly once we've finished eating all the butter.
Amul Lactic Butter (Buffalo) Butter Appreciation
Butter Break Down
Appreciation Date: March 24, 2021
Country of Origin: India
Point of Procurement: Choithrams - The Greens Dubai
Purchase State: Frozen
Milk: Buffalo, pasteurised
Salt Content: None
Milk Fat Content: 82%
Ingredients: Milk fat, Lactic Culture
Company Website: www.amul.com
Butter Evaluation
In which we discuss Amul's Lactic (Buffalo) butter.
Please forgive the colour contrast of these pictures. They really do not do this butter justice - it really was pure white!
Though we purchased it frozen, at room temperature it still remained formidably solid. Here you can see that it's not crumbly or stretchy; it's quite stiff and very smooth in texture and appearance, almost like lard.
The aroma of this butter was definitely not cow-dairy either. Buffalo milk tends to have a meatier essence to it - it's less 'sweet' on the nose whether it's fermented or not. This one was a little cheesy and almost pungent - the ferments really came through on this one! In this picture, you can better see just how white this butter is, through and through!
The flavours of this butter took some time to appear. At first, only pure fat came through, then it became cheesy and fatty without being too claggy. It cleared the palate really quickly. We figured this one was quite gamey, which makes sense because of the buffalo milk but it may be too unctuous for some!
Final Rundown
If you like your butters rich, tasty, noticeable and firm, this is the butter for you! With meaty notes and a stiff texture, we can't wait to make some savoury pastry recipes. That being said, we found it a bit meaty and gamey for just enjoying on bread. Perhaps this is an excellent cooking butter for recipes that involve a lot of spices.
Colour: Bright white
Aroma: Cheesy and fermented
Taste: Rich, savoury and gamey