On Food and Cooking

fermented cream.
Raw cream butter, whether sweet or
cultured, is now nearly extinct in the United
States and a rarity even in Europe. It is prized
for its pure cream flavor, without the cooked-
milk note due to pasteurization. The flavor is
fragile; it deteriorates after about 10 days
unless the butter is frozen.
Sweet cream butter is the most basic, and
the commonest in Britain and North America.
It’s made from pasteurized fresh cream, and
in the United States must be at least 80% fat
and no more than 16% water; the remaining
4% is protein, lactose, and salts contained in
the buttermilk droplets.
Salted sweet cream butter contains
between 1 and 2% added salt (the equivalent
of 1–2 teaspoons per pound/5–10 gm per 500
gm). Originally salt was added as a
preservative, and at 2%, the equivalent of
about 12% in the water droplets, it still is an
effective antimicrobial agent.