A versatile staple ingredient in traditional Valle d'Aosta cuisine 

Butter from Valle d'Aosta is made in the mountain pastures and co-operative dairy farms situated throughout the region and it has always played a fundamental role in traditional food. Its unmistakable taste preserves the aromas and flavours of Alpine pastures.

In winter, the dairymen produce the finest cream-based butter, rich and creamy, ideal with polenta, chestnuts or sweet raspberry jelly; to prepare it, milk is left to rest in cold water for at least 12 hours, allowing the cream to rise to the surface spontaneously and then be removed and poured into the butter churn, the tool used to make butter.

During the summer months, instead, brossa butter is made on the high mountain pastures, which is extracted from the cauldron and placed in tub, where it is left to decant and mature for approximately 24 hours ;it is then introduced in a butter churn and a little water is added: the   churning process lasts approximately 40 minutes, until the butter granules are the size of a grain of wheat.

In the past, to guarantee better preservation of butter, farmers melted it, filtered it and placed it in glass or terracotta containers, giving rise to the local beuro colo’. This typical food from Valle d'Aosta, an ideal breakfast for children and sportsmen, is rich in vitamin A and mineral salts.