Why Are Some Butters More Yellow Than Others?

It's hard to name an ingredient that's more versatile than butter. It's the base for millions of pastry recipes like shortbread and buttercream, yet it's equally at home on the savory side of the kitchen. Could you even imagine a fluffy baked potato without a pat of butter? Or eggs Benedict without buttery hollandaise sauce? Unthinkable. All butters were not created equal, however, and if you've shopped for the spreadable stuff lately, you've probably noticed that there are many different kinds of butter. Even more confusing is that butter isn't always the same color; American butter tends to be very pale while European-style and organic butters are usually a bright yellow color. The reason? Butter that looks yellow is made from milk that contains beta carotene.

Butter color all depends on what cows eat. Animals that graze in pastures get to munch on grass and wildflowers, which are rich in beta carotene. Those natural pigments are stored in fat, which is then passed on to the milk. Cows that primarily eat grain, on the other hand, don't get a lot of beta carotene, so there's no natural pigment. In the U.S., most non-specialty butter varieties in the grocery store come from cows that are raised on industrial farms and fed grain, which is why our butter is a light cream color. Specialty and European-style butters, on the other hand, are made with milk from grass-fed cows, which is why they are yellow.

So at this point you're probably wondering why milk is white if butter is yellow. After all, if beta carotene is in the milk, it should be yellow like butter, right? Not so fast. Beta carotene is only in the milk fat, which makes up only a small percentage of milk's volume. Whole milk, for example, has 3.25% milk fat, according to U.S. Dairy; the rest is mostly water. While the fat is still suspended in the milk, you can't see the yellow color because the globules are surrounded by the rest of the liquid. Depending on the source, however, you may notice a yellowish tint to milk if it comes from grass-fed or "pastured" cows, especially if the milk has a high fat content. The big color change happens when you separate the fat from the milk.

Making butter is a very simple process that forces the fat globules in the milk to smash and stick together. As the butter forms, separating the fat from the liquid, you'll be able to see the tell-tale yellow hue if the milk has a lot of beta carotene. It's super easy to make your own butter to see the color change for yourself. In fact we have more great reasons why you should give butter churning a try. Just make sure to get milk that comes from grass-fed cows so you know that there's plenty of yellow tint.