The Specialty Butter Jet Tila Always Picks Up At The Grocery Store

Contrary to what our imaginations may have us believe, professional chefs aren't immune to grocery shopping. They have personal lives outside of their restaurants and Food Network shows, and they've got kitchens of their own at home, too. Kitchens that need to be stocked with groceries.

Being connoisseurs of good quality food, you better believe that chefs have staple items, go-to brands, and favorite products that they come home with from their trips to the grocery store. For celeb chef and restaurateur Jet Tila, there's one must-buy item on his list that he always makes sure to grab — specialty butter. Cultured, salted butter to be exact. 

What exactly is cultured butter, you ask? How is it different from regular butter? What makes this specialty butter so special, and why does Chef Tila swear by it? We're here to churn out the details and find out why cultured butter is just better.

Regular old butter, while delicious in its own right, is simply pasteurized cream that's churned (a lot) until it reaches that semi-solid form of delicious dairy that we can spread on our toast and mix into a dough. But cultured butter requires an extra step before that cream is churned — fermentation. And this process is what turns it into something special.

"Good bacteria" (live cultures) are added to the cream once it's pasteurized, left to work their magic, and slowly ferment the cream into a thick, tangy, aromatic substance — then, after lots of time fermenting (​​the longer the better), it's churned into butter. "This creates an amazing cheesy tang in the butter and incredible flavor," Jet Tila explains to Food & Wine.

Cultured butter turns out extra creamy, and similar to some yogurts or cheeses, it's infused with complex flavor notes that give it a slightly acidic quality (which Chef Tila clearly loves). He gets his cultured butter salted, which only makes those flavors more pronounced. Cultured butter is essentially everything you love about butter, and more — a bigger, bolder, butterier flavor that takes any simple piece of toast or elaborate baked good to the next level.

So we know it comes with an elevated taste and creaminess which many people prefer, but how is cultured butter better than sweet cream or American butter, and what's the best way to use it? Aside from its unique flavor, there are a few other reasons why cultured butter stands out.

First of all, it's better for you nutritionally than regular butter. The live bacteria added to cultured butter make it a probiotic food, which means it's good for your digestive system and supports a healthy gut, per WebMD. It's also a great source of healthy fats and higher in vitamins B and C, so it's a slightly better choice for your overall health.

Also, because cultured butter has lower moisture content and a higher smoke point than regular butter, it often produces better, more tender results when baking – especially in flaky items or baked goods where you really want the butter to shine, like pie crusts, biscuits, and shortbread. Use it in place of butter in any recipe, and taste the difference.