I read in Toronto Life about fresh'n'local butters made by chefs Mark Cutrara (Cowbell) Scott Woods (Lucien) Rob Howland (Langdon Hall) but what I didn't learn was the butterfat content of the butters and it is the percentage of butterfat that defines good butter, particularly where cooking is concerned.

As far as I know all cream sold in Canada and thus to the chefs is 35% butterfat which makes 80% butterfat butter. The only exception I've heard of is Weston's 40% cream
which may be found in some Loblaw supermarkets.

If anyone knows of richer cream, please let me know.

I've been on the track of better Canadian butter since I wrote about its anemic quality in Last Chance to Eat. The 80% butterfat butter sold in Canada isn't rich enough to make good pastry. If you melt it in a pan, it will dissolve in water. French and some American butters have upwards of 82% a significant difference. And the best butters like Vermont Butter and Cheese's 86% butter and Buerre d'Echire's 84% are also cultured or ripened which not only produces a slightly sour taste but contributes
to the plasticity (a quality along with its higher melting point) that is needed to make croissants and puff pastry.

Rob Howland of Langdon Hall tells me he buys (from Hewitts) 20 liter bags of perhaps 40% butterfat cream which he then lets ripen to produce the desired cultured butter which has more than the normal 80% butterfat.

Presidents Choice and Lactantia both make a cultured butter but they have only 80% butterfat.

Canada bans imported butters - except for bulk butter from Uruguay and New Zealand which is distributed to the food industry - but I haven't been able to find out the butterfat content. The Canadian Dairy Association is jealous of information partly because Canada is chivied by other countries about its dairy protectionism. i


The only way to sample rich butter is to go travelling...

US butters with higher butterfat.....
Keller's Plugra - 82%
Keller's European Style Butter - 82%
Land O'Lakes Ultra Creamy Butter - 83%

The best brands for pastry are French...
Beurre d'Echire - 84% (highly regarded)
Isigny-Ste-Mere, Normandy
Celes-sur-Belle, Charentes-Poitou region

Londoners are to start paying up to $20 for fish and chips when restaurateur Tom Aikens opens a "sustainable" fish and chips spot in South Ken. Aikens spent all last year learning which fish are still sustainable and they don't come cheap.

The New York Times reports that "the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has developed a coding system that explains where a meal was caught. That code often appears on fresh and frozen fish sold in the United States and Europe, but deciphering it requires specialized knowledge (FAO Zone 34 is Ghana, for example)."

As wel, a few private nonprofit groups, like the Marine Stewardship Council and the Seafood Choices Alliance, have programs to certify that fish is sustainable, but so far only large commercial retailers are participating.

For that reason, it is easiest for most consumers to get certified sustainable fish in the frozen food section of stores like Wal-Mart which sells Stewardship Council-approved products. These programs have not extended to fish markets.

I rang Rick at Mike's fish market in the St. Lawrence Market to find out whether he's selling tagged fish. So far, he hasn't seen any.