Ooh, the SLIGHTLY SALTED butter! This is a rare amount of salt and it makes a HUGE difference! There's a reason that Great Taste Award is slapped on that packaging!
Let's all have a chat about salt for a minute.
Different cultures have developed different tolerances for salted (or unsalted!) butter over the centuries. The current standardisation, in our humble experience, is that the French (and sometimes the Irish) consider salted butter to be well over 2% salt. Depending on the nature of the salt, this will make your teeth feel fuzzy and give a harsh metallic taste so powerful that it's hard to clear from the palate.
For the French, Demi-Sel is anywhere between 1.5% and 1.8% salt, which is what most other countries, including the British in general, consider salted. Again, depending on the origin of the salt, this can still pack a metallic punch but usually brings out buttery flavours well and compliments the butter, even if it can make it really salt-forward.
Graham's Slightly Salted Organic or Conventional butters are really special. They've gone for a 1.1% salt level which, in our experience, gives a unique level of flavour enhancer without having to 'endure' excess salt.
We desperately wish we could get our hands on their Isle of Skye Salted Butter to see the comparison!
Graham's Organic Slightly Salted Scottish Butter Appreciation
Butter Break Down
Appreciation Date: May 17, 2021
Country of Origin: UK (Scotland)
Point of Procurement: Lulu Al Barsha, Dubai
Purchase State: Fresh
Milk: Cow, pasteurised
Salt Content: 1.1%
Milk Fat Content: 82.2%
Ingredients: Milk, salt (1.1%)
Company Website: www.grahamsfamilydairy.com/
Butter Evaluation
In which we discuss Graham's Family Dairy's Slightly Salted Organic butter.
Scottish butter really is delightful. Keeping its integrity, it's nice and solid at room temperature - ironically this is the type of butter you want if you're living in warmer climates as it doesn't turn to soup in the butter dish.
A pleasant, solid, matte yellow, it has a low sheen internally with no oxidation translucency.
Again, we were cheeky and compared the appearances of the Organic and Conventional butters just to see if there's any merit to the internet obsession of organic being 'better' (whatever that means). You can easily tell which is organic and which is conventional, especially if you've read our other review!
Interesting colour difference, though, isn't it?
We particularly like the aroma of this butter - milky and clean without any hint of salt.
It's the taste profile of this butter, however, that truly elevates it above so many of its competitors. We have no idea what their churning process is, but if it's less 'kneaded' than others, that would make sense.
It's incredibly interesting to eat because it's less homogenised that most other butters. You get pockets of slightly saltier butter and slightly mellower butter, all whilst enjoying a smooth, delightful texture.
We love the big hit of BUTTER that we get from the taste profile. It clings to the palate and coats the mouth nicely but doesn't overwhelm. Again, the salt level here is perfect. Our notes literally say, "Hefty but not murderous." This is bloody delightful, special stuff.
Final Rundown
We ate this with a spoon. Neat.
Colour: Bright, solid yellow.
Aroma: Clean milk
Taste: BUTTER. Slightly salty then slightly not and all of a sudden it's all gone and you need more.