A recent topic of conversation raised in our household was that of Swiss butter. For a country that prides itself on dairy products, they just can't do butter-it's not very creamy, just greasy.And butter substitutes/spreads are not much better. As someone who likes a nice salted butter(British/Irish or New Zealand) or a nice creamy French unsalted butter- is it just me? Am I alone in my opinions?

KatyE.

I agree with you, KatyE. The regular unsalted cooking butter here could gag a maggot, as my dad used to say!

There is a salted butter you can get at Migros that is not too bad. It's butter shaped like a cylinder and wrapped in light blue or light teal-colored foil. Have you tried that one?

The best butter I have ever had was in Iceland. That stuff was the bomb! I remember eating butter and apple sandwiches on their mountain bread - pure heaven!

Having said that, the Swiss know their stuff when it comes to double cream! Long live Gruyère! Do the people outside of Fribourg know of meringues and double cream?

I know that I'm still in the honeymoon period here in Switzerland, where everything is just perfect.
Having lived the past 15 years in countries such as Zimbabwe, Liberia and Bangladesh, any kind of butter is great! the supermarkets here are brilliant offering an Aladdin’s cave of choice, road discipline is just fine, in fact everything just seems to have an order about it . I know all this will probably wear off soon and I too will get frustrated about many things, but at the moment I'm just enjoying it.
Nick.

I used to be a pastry chef, so i've dealt with lots of butter. Mmm, butter.

Swiss butter is very good, I must say. Coop butter called Floralp is great. You can buy Bio butter that is so rustic you need to consume it quickly. Jelmoli sells butter that has just been squeezed out of a cow whilst listening to classical music. No, I've not encountered bad butter here.

You sure you guys aren't talking about this dodgy stuff we think is 'butter', but it's some stinking substitute 'spread'?

I'm wondering about what kind of "butter" your talking about?!

Butter or Anke ???

There is a difference...and you allways notice it, when you have lunch at swiss mates because they mostly use Butter.

PS: for those that don't know...
Butter = "cooking" butter
Anke = "bread" butter / marge
...it's probley just from the BeO

Gooner

As a former pastry chef I wondered if you might be able to explain the problem I have here making choux pastry. I have made profiteroles successfully for years and years but the first few time I made them here the dough was far too runny (I ended up leaving out some egg). Having fiddled around with the recipe I can make them now but it seemed the problem was caused by the butter. They only work if I use margarine (horror of horrors!). Is it the butter? Is the flour here different? It can`t be the eggs as I think they are slightly smaller than the ones I was using in the UK. Any help would be appreciated!

Apart from this problem, I think butter here is delicious as I prefer unsalted - unlike the rest of my family who stock up when we go to Carrefour in Mulhouse.!

could well be the eggs. One can never go on the amount of eggs specified. When beating the eggs into the mixture, you can add ready beaten eggs instead of plopping them in one by one, this way you can test if it's the amount of egg and control it. Half an egg can be too much, so plopping one too many eggs in can make it too runny. Add beaten egg a little at a time when you see you're close to your desired consistency.

Flour and pastry is also susceptible to temperature and humidity, for example you might find that you need slightly less water or liquid in a dough on a colder damper day. It could well be be the flour, we have hard and soft flour, experiment with different types of flour to see what results you get. Soft white flour should be fine.

I doubt it's the butter, what you want is nice white butter. I'm sure you can find French butter here, but I think Swiss butter is great (Floralp for example, plus you can get real fresh butter) - what you are after is the fat content in butter anyway. Working with butter can be tricky, which is why they say good pastry chefs have cold hands. You don't want to melt, split or bruise the butter. This depends on the recipe of course but generally eggs should be used at room temperature and butter either cold or at room temperature. Take brioche for example, because it's so similar to choux in the fat and egg content, the butter needs to be cold when mixed into the flour. If cold butter is called for then make sure it's cold, if room temp butter is called for, do not stick it in the microwave for a few seconds, just leave it out for 10 or 15 minutes.

Pate Choux is runny, but I presume you've got the little profiterole cups. If you think your paste is still too runny, fridge it for a short while and work swiftly with it.

As you can see there are many variables involved, it's the tried and tested method that works, practice makes perfect.

Good luck with the Choux.

Gooner

Thanks for your reply. You haven`t convinced me though - I still think it`s the butter! When I`m next in Germany I`ll get a pack of Lurpak and see if that makes a difference. I`ve made them so many times easily and successfully in the UK that I don`t think it`s my technique. What are these Profiterole tins you talk about? I pipe mine which is why it`s a disaster if they`re too runny.

Thanks again.

The same tins that pastry chefs use to make little shells for canapes can be used to make profiteroles (piped in). Eclares are pipes straight onto a baking tray.

You know what works for you, and please let me know what results you get with the danish butter.

Regards.

KatyE

Perhaps you should pick "your battles" with a bit more discrimination. Butter, really? Why not world peace or atomic bombs or something else of equal gravity. How about the Swiss Languages? Now thats a weighty subject.

Ah but Swisscheese, pettiness is the essence of integration in this country In other words when you pick your battles - you pick all of them!

If you can think of a better complaint please post it and we'll all jump on the bandwagon!!