Our specialist butters bring together handmade, flavoured and artisan varieties sourced from trusted producers in Ireland, France and the UK, each chosen for its quality, character and flavour.
Types of Butter in Our Range
We stock a broad selection of butter types to suit different cooking styles and tastes. Our range includes classic salted and unsalted varieties, compound butters blended with flavourings, and plain artisan butter that is churned using traditional methods. Understanding the different types of butter available helps you choose the right one for the job.
Plain butter, such as our Normandy sea salt butter, is made from high-quality cream and finished with a light seasoning of Guérande salt crystals. It is suited to baking, cooking, and table use, and makes a particularly good base for homemade compound butters.
Compound butters combine butter with additional ingredients such as herbs, garlic, truffles, or bone marrow, creating a ready-made finishing butter that adds instant flavour to grilled meats, fish, and vegetables. We also carry cultured butter, which has a slightly tangy edge from the cream's fermentation before churning, giving it a more complex flavour that works especially well on good bread and in pastry.
Flavoured Butter
Flavoured butter is one of the simplest ways to bring a dish to life. A slice of compound butter melting over a hot steak, a spoonful stirred through pasta, or a generous spread on warm bread can turn something ordinary into something memorable. Our flavoured butter range includes smoked butter from Abernethy in Ireland, black garlic butter, chimichurri butter, and dulse seaweed butter, all handmade in small batches using wooden butter paddles and milk from grass-fed cows in the Lagan Valley.
Each flavoured butter in the collection has its own character. The smoked butter carries a gentle, smoky warmth that complements cheese boards and grilled fish. Black garlic butter has a sweet, almost caramelised depth that pairs well with roasted meats and vegetables. Dulse seaweed butter brings a subtle, salty edge from the sea, making it a natural match for shellfish and grilled prawns. If you prefer variety, our flavoured butter trio bundles three different flavours together, giving you the chance to try several in one order.
For those who enjoy making their own flavoured butter at home, our Drogo's Kitchen recipes include a wild garlic butter and an edible flower and herb butter, both using our Normandy butter as the base. These are simple to prepare and can be rolled, chilled, and sliced as needed.
Truffle Butter
Truffle butter is one of the most popular products in our specialist butter range, thanks to its indulgence and luxuriousness. Made by blending high-quality butter with finely chopped black or white truffles and a touch of sea salt, truffle butter delivers a concentrated, earthy, savoury flavour that works with a wide range of ingredients. Stir it through risotto, toss it with fresh pasta, melt it over a steak, or fold it into mashed potatoes for an instant lift.
Black truffle butter has a deeper, more intense flavour with savoury, mushroom-like notes, while white truffle butter is lighter and more aromatic, with hints of garlic and shallot. Both types are available in our dedicated truffle butter collection, alongside our wider truffle selection of fresh, preserved, and truffle-infused products.
For a recipe that puts truffle butter centre stage, try our pappardelle with truffle butter and Périgord truffle, a dish that relies on just three ingredients and lets the quality of the butter speak for itself.
Fancy Butter and Artisan Producers
There has been a growing appetite for luxury or ‘fancy butter’ in recent years, driven by a wider appreciation for artisan dairy and the difference that quality butter makes in cooking and at the table. Fancy butter differs from mass-produced supermarket butter in several ways: it is typically churned in smaller batches, often using traditional wooden methods, and the cream is sourced from specific breeds or regions known for their milk quality. The result is butter with a richer colour, a creamier texture, and a more pronounced flavour.
Many of our customers search for Le Beurre Bordier UK, the celebrated French butter maker based in Saint-Malo, known for churning butter using traditional wooden methods and offering distinctive flavoured varieties. While our range features a selection of artisan butters from producers across Europe, including our Normandy sea salt butter and our handmade Irish Abernethy butters, all share that same commitment to craft and flavour that makes artisan butter stand apart from the ordinary.
Other fancy butter options in our collection include caviar butter, which blends smooth dairy with the delicate brine of fine caviar, and bone marrow butter, which adds a rich, savoury depth that pairs beautifully with steaks, roasted vegetables, and mashed potatoes. Our bone marrow mash recipe is a great example of how a specialist butter can turn a simple side dish into something special.
How to Store and Use Specialist Butter
Most of our specialist butter is delivered fresh from frozen and should be refrigerated on arrival. Once opened, butter is best used within three days. If you want to keep a supply on hand, many of our butters can be frozen and thawed in the fridge when needed. Compound and flavoured butters are particularly well suited to freezing, as the added ingredients retain their flavour well.
For cooking, butter performs best at moderate temperatures. When searing meat or fish, heat the pan first and add the butter just before the food goes in to avoid burning. For finishing, add a slice of flavoured butter on top of a hot steak or grilled fish and let it melt at the table. For baking, always use butter at the temperature specified in the recipe, whether softened, chilled, or melted. Clarified butter (ghee), made by removing the milk solids, is a good option for high-heat cooking because it has a higher smoke point than whole butter.
Our specialist butter range also pairs well with products from across the Fine Food Specialist store. Try our garlic and herb butter alongside grilled scallops, or use Normandy sea salt butter as the base for a maitre d'hotel butter to serve with steak. All orders are dispatched with next-day delivery across the UK. For full details, visit our delivery FAQs page.
Specialist Butter FAQs
1. What Types Of Butter Do You Stock?
We carry a wide range of butter types, including plain salted and unsalted varieties, compound butters such as truffle butter, smoked butter, black garlic butter, and chimichurri butter, as well as artisan options like Normandy sea salt butter and bone marrow butter. All are sourced from trusted producers in Ireland, France, and the UK.
2. What Is Flavoured Butter?
Flavoured butter, also called compound butter, is butter blended with additional ingredients such as herbs, spices, garlic, truffles, or other flavourings. It is typically rolled into a log, chilled, and sliced to serve on top of grilled meats, fish, or vegetables, or stirred into sauces, pasta, and mashed potatoes.
3. How Should I Store Specialist Butter?
Our specialist butter arrives fresh from frozen and should be refrigerated immediately. Once opened, use within three days. Unopened butter can be kept in the freezer and thawed in the fridge overnight when needed. Compound butters freeze particularly well and retain their flavour after thawing.
4. What Is Truffle Butter Used For?
Truffle butter is a versatile ingredient that adds earthy, savoury richness to dishes. It works well tossed through fresh pasta, stirred into risotto, melted over grilled steak, folded into mashed potato, or simply spread on warm bread. A small amount goes a long way, making it both a practical and flavourful addition to your kitchen.
Good butter can transform a dish. At Fine Food Specialist, we carry a carefully selected range of specialist butter that goes well beyond what you will find on supermarket shelves.
From handmade Irish butter churned with wooden paddles to French Normandy butter with Guérande sea salt, every product in this collection has been chosen for its flavour, texture, and provenance. Whether you are finishing a steak, enriching a sauce, baking pastry, or simply spreading it on fresh sourdough, the right butter makes all the difference. Our range caters to professional chefs and home cooks alike, with options for every occasion and cooking style.
