Butter, Cream, and Beyond: The Magic of Milk Fat

Milk fat has had a tumultuous 50 years. Vilified in the 1970s and 80s as a saturated fat villain, partially rehabilitated by the 1990s, and now — in the post-low-fat-diet era — experiencing something of a cultural triumph. Butter is back. Cultured butter is fashionable. Ghee is a wellness trend. Clotted cream is still just... perfect. Here is a celebration of what happens when you work with the fat in milk.

The Composition of Milk Fat

Milk fat is not a single substance — it is an extraordinarily complex mixture of over 400 different fatty acids, assembled into triglycerides and packaged in tiny fat globules surrounded by a membrane called the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM). This membrane contains phospholipids and glycoproteins with their own nutritional properties, many of which are disrupted by homogenisation.

The fatty acid profile of milk fat includes:

• Saturated fatty acids (~65%): primarily palmitic, stearic, and myristic acids
• Monounsaturated fatty acids (~30%): primarily oleic acid (the same as in olive oil)
• Polyunsaturated fatty acids (~5%): including omega-3s and CLA (much higher in grass-fed milk)
• Short and medium-chain fatty acids: lauric acid, capric acid, caprylic acid — these have unique metabolic properties, being rapidly absorbed and used for energy

Cream: The First Separation

Before homogenisation was widespread, leaving fresh milk to stand would cause the fat globules to rise to the surface, forming a cream layer. This natural phenomenon is now recreated mechanically through centrifugal separation.

Cream products vary by fat content:

• Half-and-half / single cream: 10–18% fat — pourable, for coffee
• Whipping cream: 30–36% fat — can be whipped to soft peaks
• Double cream: 48% fat (British) — whips very firmly, will not collapse
• Clotted cream: 55–60% fat — made by slow heating cream until a golden, thick layer forms on top; a Devon and Cornwall tradition; served with scones at a cream tea
• Crème fraîche: 30–35% fat, fermented by lactic bacteria — tangy, stable when cooked (unlike sour cream)

Butter: 10,000 Years of Greatness

Butter is made by agitating cream until the fat globules break, aggregate, and separate from the liquid buttermilk. The result is approximately 80% fat (by law in most countries), with the rest being water and trace milk solids.

Types of butter worth knowing:

• Sweet cream butter: Made from fresh, un-fermented cream. The standard in the UK, US, and Australasia. Mild, clean flavour.
• Cultured butter: Made from cream fermented with lactic acid bacteria before churning. More complex, slightly tangy, nutty flavour. Standard in France, Denmark, and Belgium — and now fashionable worldwide. Beurre d'Isigny, Échiré, and Beurre de Baratte Artisanal are celebrated French examples.
• Grass-fed butter: From cows grazing pasture. Distinctly more yellow (from beta-carotene), richer in CLA and omega-3s, with a fuller flavour. Irish Kerrygold is the iconic example.
• High-fat European butter: Many European butters contain 82–84% fat rather than the 80% minimum — resulting in flakier pastry and richer sauces
• Brown butter (beurre noisette): Butter cooked until the milk solids brown and nutty Maillard compounds develop. One of the great flavour transformations in cooking.

Ghee: Butter's Ancient Cousin

Ghee is clarified butter that has been simmered until all water has evaporated and the milk solids (casein and whey proteins) have been removed or toasted. What remains is essentially pure milk fat — with a higher smoke point, longer shelf life, and a characteristic nutty, caramelised flavour.

Ghee has been produced in South Asia for at least 3,500 years, appearing in Vedic ritual texts and Ayurvedic medicine. It is used as a cooking fat (stable at high temperatures), a flavouring (drizzled over dal and biryani), and a medicinal preparation in traditional Indian medicine.

The wellness world has recently discovered ghee, promoting it as a "clean" cooking fat. While some claims are overstated, ghee's genuinely high smoke point (232°C vs. 163°C for regular butter) makes it a practically excellent high-heat cooking fat.

The Rehabilitation of Butter

The story of butter's fall and rise is a cautionary tale about nutrition science. Decades of advice to replace butter with margarine (partially hydrogenated vegetable fat) were based on a simplistic model that demonised saturated fat. The subsequent discovery that trans fats — abundant in margarines of the 70s and 80s — were dramatically worse for cardiovascular health than the saturated fats they replaced led to a major reassessment.

Current evidence suggests that the relationship between dairy fat and cardiovascular disease is far more complex than once believed. Full-fat dairy, particularly fermented dairy and grass-fed dairy, appears to be either neutral or modestly beneficial in well-designed prospective studies. The pendulum has not simply swung back — it has settled in a more nuanced position.

Butter, in moderation, as part of a diverse diet with plenty of vegetables, whole grains, and varied protein sources, appears to be exactly what it has always been: one of the great pleasures of a well-fed life.

Related: The Art of Cheese | What Makes Good Quality Milk?