The Best Butter

Is there really a best butter? Experts in France (and who would know better?) seem to agree that it's Beurre Bordier, made by Jean-Yves Bordier in Brittany -- not Normandy (sacré bleu!) -- although the milk he uses comes from cows located in both provinces.

I tried the two pictured here, le beurre doux and le beurre au sel fumé. And yes, it is the best butter. I don't think it's cultured, which would be rare for high-quality French butter, because the sweet butter does not have the characteristic sour tang; it's like the best non-cultured butter imaginable. And the smoked salt butter was little short of divine, on toast and in tiny slices placed in the middle of a split radish.

According to Bordier's web site, the special complex buttery notes are a result of 15-25 minutes of kneading (malaxage) in a teak vessel and the artisanal barattage process, which I don't understand at all. The final bars are shaped by hand using wooden spatulas on wooden tables, by workers who must have "great dexterity and clock-like consistency." Charming if nothing else.

Apart from baking, I don't actually use much butter, but I am tempted to sample every variety of Bordier's, and there are quite a few. Here's the current list from their website:

Les classiques

• Le beurre doux
• Le beurre demi-sel
• Le beurre salé

Les spécialités

• Le beurre au sel fumé
• Le beurre aux algues
• Le beurre au Yuzu
• Le beurre au Piment d’Espelette

Beurre Bordier is now available in Paris in selected cheese and other gourmet stores. I got mine at Lafayette Gourmet.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Another Great Artisanal Butter

I reported a year ago (to this day) on Beurre Bordier, an artisan butter that has taken France by storm, and it really is great stuff.

But recently I heard from Dorie Greenspan, the wonderful cookbook author, that she has been favoring Beurre Beillevaire, made in the Loire Atlantique in wooden barattes. Interestingly, neither Bordier nor Beillevaire is made in Normandy, the traditional home of French butter and other milk products (think Camembert, Pont l'Eveque, etc.); perhaps that gives them more freedom to innovate which, in this context, means going back to old methods with wooden barrels and paddles.

Coincidentally, there is a Bielleville store on rue Saint Antoine, a few minutes from our apartment, where their products are available. I decided to try the demi-sel croquant (crunchy).

Beillevaire store in Paris

Rushing home, I slathered some of it on a toasted slice of Pain Poilâne, probably France's most famous bread: heaven. I wished I could give a taste to the many people who ask me why I love Paris so much! Even cold, the butter is spreadable and the salt, which is not very crunchy in the end, is a great counterpoint for the sweetness of the butter.

Not only is the butter wonderful to eat, it is even pretty to look at. A cute cow is embossed on the butter, which quickly disappears as the butter is consumed.

Beurre Beillevaire

Beurre Beillevaire embossed cow

Bordier or Bielleville: what a nice dilemma!

Bobby Jay

Paris -- Cooking for One

I love cooking for one in Paris, because the butchers, bakers and charcuteries offer stunning food that requires little, if any, help.

Tonight I had a simple but wonderful meal consisting of truffled boudin blanc (a very light pork sausage) which I simmered, skinned, split and broiled, with flageolets (lima beans) that I heated in the microwave in their original package for 4 minutes . . . 

Boudin blanc, flageolets

followed by a salad of bitter pissenlit (dandelion greens) with a mustardy vinaigrette made with walnut oil, together with a slice of perfect camembert and some toasted walnut bread from the renowned Poilâne bakery and demi-sel butter from Bordier (considered by many to be France's best) . . .

Pissenlit, camembert, toasted pain aux noix with beurre demi-sel Bordier

. . .  followed by a slice of cake (not gâteau) chocolat pistache from Miss Manon, a nearby bakery . . .

Cake chocolat pistache

. . . and eventually by coffee and, probably (still thinking about it) a nightcap of Vielle Prune.

Little effort, big taste! And not doable in New York.

Bobby Jay

Paris - First Meal at Our New Apartment

We moved into our new apartment on Wednesday, amidst heavy rain. As soon as the movers left, the weather turned uncharacteristically perfect for Paris: bright sunshine, cool but not cold temperature, a slight breeze.

We are still getting to know the new neighborhood, but have already found a great cheese store (Dubois, which has three or four branches), a wonderful baker a block away, a very good vegetable seller, a good charcuterie and an excellent wine store. I have not looked for a butcher yet, but a great one is five minutes away on Île Saint-Louis. As is Berthillon, the best ice cream and sorbet producer in Paris, and another leading cheese store.

In addition, starting at the Northern end of the Place de la Bastille, on the boulevard Richard Lenoir, is one of Paris' biggest outdoor markets, held on Thursday and Sunday mornings. It is of mixed quality so the challenge will be to find the best purveyors, which I suspect won't be too difficult. I will be making a reconnoitering trip this Sunday, but not buying much because I leave on Monday. The covered Marché Aligre, one of Paris' best, is also in the neighborhood, but not that close.

Clearly, we will not starve.

Today we had our first meal in the apartment, consisting of cheeses, bread, sausage, ham, duck pâté, terrine of chicken livers, breakfast radishes with Bordier demi-sel butter and a simple white Bergerac, all obtained from the vendors described above. This simply cannot be replicated in the US, or at least not with this level of quality (especially the absolutely perfect cheeses).

Dubois cheeses: vieux compté, trèfle and a chèvre with nuts and walnut oil

Ham, sausage, chicken liver terrine and duck pâté

We are now officially chez nous at the new apartment.

Bobby Jay