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MarketBasket: A better butter

A better butter y Just as Italians debate the subtleties of their finest olive oils, the French obsess over butters. One of my longtime favorites, Echiré, has been the butter gold standard at Bibou, and the equally wonderful Pamplie (with sea salt) lather

DiBruno's cheese monger Malachy Egan holds a basket of fine, salted French butter from Le Meunier.
DiBruno's cheese monger Malachy Egan holds a basket of fine, salted French butter from Le Meunier.Read moreCraig LaBan / Staff
    by Craig LaBan, Inquirer Restaurant Critic
    Published 

A better butter 

Just as Italians debate the subtleties of their finest olive oils, the French obsess over butters. One of my longtime favorites, Echiré, has been the butter gold standard at Bibou, and the equally wonderful Pamplie (with sea salt) lathers the baguettes at sister restaurant Le Chéri. But a new contender has arrived at Di Bruno Bros. in a big wicker basket from one of France's rock-star cheese mongers, Rodolphe Le Meunier. This "beurre de baratte" - churned in the old-school way as opposed to modern centrifuge methods - isn't le bonmarché at $12.99 a pound. But each deep-yellow scoop delivers an intensity of Normandy cream flavor - at once nutty, crackly with sea salt, and pleasingly grassy - that reaches depths of butterdom rarely tasted. The morning toast may never be the same.

– Craig LaBan
Buerre de baratte Rodolph Le Meunier, $12.99 a pound, at all Di Bruno Bros. locations.