Bordier Butter

Bordier Butter with smoked salt

I never knew butter could be so rich and flavorful until I had Bordier butter in France.  Sure, butter always makes everything taste better, especially in the form of browned butter or caramel or buttered anything.  Take what you know about butter's flavor and fragrance and elevate it ten levels higher.  That's what Bordier butter is like.  It has an amazing flavor even when cold or at room temperature.  This butter is not a condiment, but the main attraction.  I would eat more bread just so I could eat more butter!

Le Beurre Bordier is made by Monsieur Jean-Yves Bordier in the Normandy region of France.   People say his butter is the best in France and possibly in the whole world. Good butter (and cheese) comes from happy cows, like the ones that feast on French pastures with rich soil. Bordier takes 3 days to slowly make his butter, including a 36-hour maturing process for the cream, hours of churning, and then beating the butter with wooden paddles to relax it into the proper texture. He supplies butter to many of the top restaurants in France, molding them into unique shapes for each restaurant. His butter is also available for purchase in small slabs from several shops around Paris.  A small slab approximately 4"x2.5"x1" costs roughly €2.30, about the price I'd pay in the US for a pound of butter. It's not cheap, but totally worth it.

Bordier Butter comes in a multitude of flavors. There's the standard butter flavors: unsalted, lightly salted, and salted. Then there are the flavored varieties: smoked salt, seaweed, yuzu, Espelette chili, lemon-olive oil, and vanilla.

We picked up the smoked salt butter and polished off half the brick in a week. I regret not trying more flavors especially since we were prepared to bring back leftovers. Before we left Paris, we froze the remainder of our butter, wrapped it in layers of foil, stuck it into a ziplock bag and hid it in our luggage. It made the journey all the way back to California and into our freezer, where we can slice off a chunk the next time we have some crusty bread.

Highly suggested that you buy a slab of Bordier butter if you're ever in Paris.  Even more highly suggested is that you bring some back to California for me, please. :)

A few places to get Bordier butter in Paris, France:

La Grand Epicerie (across from Le Bon Marché )
38 rue de Sèvres
Tel: 01.44.39.81.00
Open Mon-Sat, 8:30am-9pm
Closed Sunday

L’Épicerie Breizh Café (their galettes and crepes are cooked in Bordier butter, yum!)
111 rue Vieille du Temple
Tel: 01.42.71.39.44
Open Wed-Sun, 11am-9pm
Closed Monday, Tuesday, and 3 weeks in August

Da Rosa
62 Rue de Seine
Tel: 01.40.51.00.09
Open Sun-Sat, 10am-11:30pm

Salon du Fromage Hisada
47 Rue de Richelieu
Tel: 01.42.60.78.48
Open Tues-Sat, 11:30am-8pm
Closed Sunday, Monday