On this page:

• Top ice creams in our test
• Cheapest ice creams
• Most expensive ice creams
• What's the difference between ice cream and gelato?
• What makes a good ice cream?
• Additives in ice cream
• Does diet ice cream taste good?
• How we test ice cream

But with so many ice cream brands and styles now on offer at the supermarket, how do you know which product to choose? It’s no longer as simple as deciding between vanilla or chocolate.

For starters, what’s the difference between ice cream and gelato? Why do some ice creams contain additives? Is there a taste trade-off when choosing diet ice cream?

To help answer these questions and more, we reviewed and taste tested vanilla ice creams available in Australian supermarkets, from brands including Bulla, Connoisseur, Haagen-Dazs, Peters, Streets and more.

Top ice creams in our test

Of the 25 vanilla ice creams we included in our expert panel blind taste test, four received a ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating of 80% or more, earning them recommended status.

Three of these were home-brand products from Coles, Woolworths and Aldi, with these lower-cost options beating some of the more premium brands like Connoisseur and Haagen-Dazs.

Norco products were hit and miss. The Cape Byron Ultimate Vanilla impressed our judges and achieved recommended status, but the same brand’s Classic Vanilla option was among the lowest scorers.

Coles Irresistible Vanilla Bean

• ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 94% (Recommended)
• Price per 100mL: $0.65
• Experts say: “Good quality ice cream”, “creamy texture, smooth”, “pleasant vanilla aroma”, “good appearance with vanilla seeds evident”, “good creaminess”.

Aldi Indulge Vanilla Bean Gourmet Ice Cream

• ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 89% (Recommended)
• Price per 100mL: $0.60
• Experts say: “Pleasant mild vanilla aroma, vanilla seeds evident, good vanilla flavour”, “a very pleasant ice cream”, “creamy nice mouthfeel”, “great balance in flavour and fat”.

Norco Cape Byron Ultimate Vanilla

• ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 85% (Recommended)
• Price per 100mL: $1.00
• Experts say: “Strong vanilla aroma”, “nice balance of vanilla flavour and sweetness level”, “creamy mouthfeel”, “very nice standard typical vanilla ice cream”, “smooth, no iciness in texture”.

Woolworths Vanilla Bean Indulgent Ice Cream

• ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 81% (Recommended)
• Price per 100mL: $0.65
• Experts say: “Nice balanced vanilla flavour and sweetness level”, “pleasant but mild vanilla aroma and mild vanilla flavour”, “good texture with vanilla bean seeds evident”, “balanced flavour”.

Cheapest ice creams

The three cheapest ice creams were also among the lowest scoring according to our experts.Ìý

Aldi Milfina Vanilla

• ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 47%
• Price per 100mL: $0.17
• Experts say: “Mild vanilla aroma”, “very icy texture, coarse, watery, not creamy”, “too sweet – unbalanced”, “artificial”, “little creaminess in appearance or mouthfeel”.

Coles Simply Vanilla

• ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 47%
• Price per 100mL: $0.23
• Experts say: “Icy texture with very little creaminess or fat”, “melts quickly with mainly sweet taste and aftertaste”, “very soft texture and very icy”, “taste is not good”.

Woolworths Vanilla

• ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 43%
• Price per 100mL: $0.23
• Experts say: “Texture is coarse”, “taste is lacking”, “not creamy at all”, “little vanilla aroma or flavour and flavour disappears from the palate quickly”.

Most expensive ice creams

If you think spending more means a better product, think again. The most expensive products came from the brands Bulla, Connoisseur, Elato, Haagen-Dazs, Pana Organic and Sara Lee, but none of these pricey products received scores to brag about.

• Haagen-Dazs Vanilla: $2.95 per 100mL
• Elato Triple Vanilla: $2.63 per 100mL
• Pana Organic Vanilla Bean Frozen Dessert: $1.37 per 100mL
• Bulla Murray St Ice Creamery Vanilla Bean: $1.20 per 100mL
• Connoisseur Classic Vanilla: $1.20 per 100mL
• Sara Lee Creamy French Vanilla Ice Cream: $1.20 per 100mL

Their taste test results were mediocre at best, ranging from 46% for Pana Organic, to 69% for Elato and Bulla’s Murray St.Ìý

The Haagen-Dazs Vanilla cost a staggering $2.95 per 100mL, but only scored 54% for taste. This was way below the top products, which all score over 80% and cost as little as 60 cents per 100mL. It just goes to prove that you can’t buy flavour.

Organic, but tastes like coconut

If you’re looking for an organic product or one that’s suitable for vegans, the Pana Organic product ticks these boxes – but buyer beware, it tastes like coconut, not vanilla.Ìý

When choosing which products to test, our criteria was any supermarket ice cream that’s labelled as “vanilla” and the Pana Organic product is called Vanilla Bean. But, as one expert said, “the coconut presence overbears on the vanilla”, and another observed, “this would be good if sold as a coconut ice cream; there’s no vanilla aroma, only coconut, even though vanilla seeds are evident”.Ìý

What’s the difference between ice cream and gelato?

The words ice cream and gelato are often used interchangeably, but they are two different products. The main difference is that ice cream is regulated for its milk fat content.

Ice cream

To be sold as ice cream, a product needs to meet certain requirements for milk fat and food solids.

Food Standards Australia defines ice cream as “a sweet frozen food that is made from cream or milk products or both and other foods, and is generally aerated”. Crucially, it must contain at least 10% milk fat and 168g/L of food solids.

To be labelled as “reduced fat ice cream” it must contain at least 25% less fat than standard ice cream, and low fat versions must contain no more than 3% fat.Ìý

There are plenty of products in the freezer aisle that look like ice cream products but don’t meet these requirements. If you check the nutrition panel, they may be described as something like “vanilla flavoured frozen dairy dessert”.

Gelato

Gelato is the Italian word for ice cream, but there’s no standard definition for gelato in Australia.

Gelato can be either milk-based or fruit-based, and doesn’t necessarily contain dairy products. According to gelato producers, gelato is generally lower in fat – closer to 5%, compared with 10% or higher for ice cream – and churned less than ice cream.

When less air is incorporated into the mixture, this results in a denser consistency with a colder, fresher eating sensation – a common attribute of premium-tier ice creams, as well as gelato.

Sorbet

Sorbet is a French word that describes a frozen mixture of sweetened water and fruit juice or purée. Fruit-based, dairy-free gelato is sometimes referred to as sorbet. We didn’t include sorbet in our taste test.

What makes a good ice cream?

Ice cream is more than just frozen cream and milk, which would simply be hard and unpalatable.Ìý

Sugar is added to reduce the freezing point of cream – and of course give it the sweetness essential to a dessert! And then the mix is churned to introduce air.Ìý

From there, those components interact to create one of the world’s most loved frozen treats. Here’s how they work together:

1. Ice crystals

These are made from the water in the cream, and their size plays a big role in whether your ice cream feels silky smooth or a bit grainy.

2. Concentrated cream

This is what’s left of the cream after the crystallisation of its water. It contains the dissolved sugar, a bit of water (that stays liquid because of all the sugar), milk fats, and milk proteins. This concentration acts as the glue, holding those ice crystals together, making your ice cream solid.

3. Air

While your ice cream is getting all churned up, air particles sneak in. They weaken the bond between the cream and ice crystals, which makes the ice cream softer and easier to scoop. And they increase the volume of the ice cream, sometimes up to a half air and half ice cream mix.

The key to making a good ice cream is the right balance between these ice crystals, concentrated cream and the air. The resulting product should be creamy, smooth, firm and just a little bit chewy. And it should have a milk fat percentage between 10 and 20%.

In vanilla-flavoured ice cream, the strength of flavour is very important too.

Additives in ice cream

Read the ingredients list and you’ll see that ice cream sometimes contains a number of different additives, most commonly emulsifiers, stabilisers and thickeners. The main reason they’re there is to help retain the ice cream’s smooth and creamy texture.

Emulsifiers are used in many foods to help prevent fat and water from separating into layers, while stabilisers and thickeners (such as vegetable gums) perform the similar functions of increasing stability, increasing viscosity (thickness) to a desired consistency, and maintaining the uniform dispersion of substances in solid and semi-solid foods.

For ice cream specifically, the emulsifiers help to promote the formation of a whipped fat structure in the product during freezing, which gives good melting resistance when being eaten. The emulsifiers also promote a longer shelf life and creaminess in the ice cream. Stabilisers and thickeners give a rich, creamy mouthfeel.Ìý

When a freezer goes through its cycles – warming up and cooling down again – small ice crystals present in the product can eventually grow into larger ones over time, typically resulting in a coarse texture and iciness. The stabilisers and thickeners play a useful role to limit the increasing size of ice crystals during storage.

Where traditionally ice cream producers would include eggs in their recipe to help perform these functions, there are a few reasons why they may choose to use additives as an alternative.

Additives are more robust and easier to store and transport than eggs. Eggs are also a common allergen, so removing them from the recipe makes the product more widely accessible. Crucially, additives are more consistent in price and availability than eggs and are significantly more cost-effective.

Colour

The colour of ice cream is important; it’s the first thing we notice when we look at it.Ìý

Most of the ice creams included in this test contain added colour. The additives are usually beta carotene (also listed as 160a), lutein (160b) or annatto (161b). These all lend a yellow/orange colour to food. These colours are used to mimic the colour of egg yolk, which is traditionally used to make ice cream. These additives have been approved by the Australian Food Standards (FSANZ) as safe to use in foods.

Three of the products we tested contained egg yolk rather than added colour: Haagen-Dazs Vanilla, Elato Triple Vanilla and Sara Lee Creamy French Vanilla Ice Cream.

Beef-derived gelatine

One of the ice creams we tested contained gelatin. Gelatin is added to many foods and comes from the skin, bones and tendons of animals. It’s used to thicken or provide a desirable texture in the ice cream.Ìý

If you’re a vegetarian then you’ll want to avoid the Golden North Vanilla Ice Cream.

Other ice creams in this test contained seaweed-derived gums such as carrageenan, which can be consumed in vegetarian diets.

Does diet ice cream taste good?

Ice cream is an indulgence and you’d expect there to be cream, milk and sugar in abundance – with their associated fat, sugar and kilojoules.

Low-kilojoule or low-sugar ice cream is an option, but when you remove these goodies are you also removing the deliciousness?

Of the 18 products we tested that stated their milk fat percentage, six were below 10%.Ìý

But while there may be a lot of options for people looking for lower fat ice cream, unfortunately most of those products languish in the bottom half of the results table.Ìý

One exception was the Aldi Monarc Silver Scoop Creamy Vanilla Flavoured, which has a milk fat percentage of 6% and scored 72% for taste, which we consider to be a good result.Ìý

On average, the diet products (categorised as those containing less than 3g of fat per 100g) contained an average of 629 kilojoules per 100g, compared with the average 842 kilojoules per 100g in the regular ice cream products we tested.

Per serve, that’s not a big difference. So if you’re trying to cut down on kilojoules, you’ll still need to be careful to not overdo it.

How we test ice cream

Products

We included products labelled as vanilla ice cream, or those that presented themselves as vanilla ice cream through the imagery or wording used on the packaging (see definition of ice cream above), that are available nationally through at least one of the major supermarket chains.Ìý

Tasting

Our experts tasted the ice cream samples blind (without knowing the brands) in a randomised order, and rated the ice creams on appearance, aroma, flavour and texture.

Scores

Experts independently judged all ice creams, scoring each sample for flavour and aroma, texture and appearance. The ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating is made up of the taste test result which consists of:

• flavour 40%
• texture 30%
• appearance 20%
• aroma 10%.

Meet our expert taste testers

Vincent Piccolo is an Artisan Gelato Maker and the creative force behind his family’s business, Art of Gelato. He has spent his life mastering the multigenerational recipes and techniques of his craft. Today, Vincent creates bespoke gelato products for Sydney’s most recognisable venues and has been featured by the Powerhouse Museum in its “Powerhouse Food: Producers” series.

Petra Sugiarto has an academic background in food technology and microbiology and has been working in the food industry for more than 20 years, in particular the dairy industry in various applications including yoghurt, cheese, ice cream/gelato, dairy desserts. For the past 14 years she’s been on the judging panels for the DIAA and Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Produce competitions and for the AGDA.

Brigid Treloar has been a freelance food consultant for over 30 years. The author of eight cookbooks, and co-author of three others, she also contributes to newspapers and magazines, reviews restaurants and judges cookery and recipe competitions. Brigid has presented specialist cooking classes around Australia and overseas, and often appears on TV and radio. She’s a lecturer at Le Cordon Bleu, consultant with Zest Waterfront Venues, and advises many of Australia’s food companies on product and recipe development. Brigid is Chair of Judges for Sydney Royal Fine Food Speciality Products (which includes products like jams, herbs, teas and chocolate) and is a judge for Professional Bakery, Aquaculture, Pasta, Olive Oil, Dairy Competitions and Sydney Perishable and Non-Perishable foods.

The post Coles and Aldi top vanilla ice cream taste tests appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

For basics such as fresh milk, pasta and paper towels, switching brands might not seem like that big a deal – chances are you won’t even notice the difference.

And some supermarket-branded products are actually pretty good: check out the cheaper supermarket home-brand products that outperform big-name brands in our tests.

When it comes to indulgences like ice cream, though, we tend to stick firmly to our favourite brands and wouldn’t dream of giving them up in favour of supermarket cheapies.

It’s totally understandable: the price might be right, but will the flavour be? Is lower quality the trade-off for a lower price?

In pursuit of an answer, we put long-time Australian favourite, the classic vanilla Streets Cornetto, up against Aldi’s copycat version, Monarc Crowns.

Is the bargain product’s taste as tempting as its price? Or has the Cornetto persisted for 65 years for good reason?

ÌÇÐÄVlog staff selflessly scoffed both ice creams in one sitting to give you the answer.

How we compared Cornettos and Crowns

Here’s what we did:

To ensure there was no bias, we tasked our volunteers with a blind taste test, which means they couldn’t tell which ice cream was which.

Testers were asked to taste each ice cream and tell us what they thought of it. We also asked them which one they thought was the real Cornetto Classico, and which one they liked most.

And the winner is…

Here’s the scoop: Aldi Crowns were the crowd favourite, and not just by a little bit.

Every single taste tester preferred the Aldi ice cream, and every single taste tester was absolutely convinced that it was the Streets Cornetto Classico.

That’s right: the Aldi dupes were so good that they duped everyone.

Had they known the price of each ice cream, our testers might have found the Crowns even sweeter. They cost just $3.69 for a pack of four – that’s 92 cents each.

Not only were the Cornettos less popular with our taste testers, they’re also likely to be less popular with anyone on a budget: they cost a huge $2.25 each – more than twice as much as the Crowns!

What people said about Aldi Crowns:

• The ice cream has more flavour and feels creamier
• More nuts and chocolate on top
• The cone is crispier and stayed crisp all the way to the bottom
• The ice cream tastes more like vanilla and is a lot denser
• Nice chocolate, especially at the bottom
• More chocolate at the bottom

What people said about Streets Cornetto Classico:

• The cone is OK but nothing special
• Cone waffle tastes stale
• The ice cream is a bit icy and not very creamy
• The wafer was crispy at the start but soggy by the time I got to the bottom
• The ice cream doesn’t taste ‘real’ – it’s less dense and seems like it has more air in it
• The flavours taste ‘cheaper’Ìý

When is ice cream not ice cream?

While it might sound nitpicky, sometimes what we think of as ice cream isn’t technically ice cream at all.

To be sold as ‘ice cream’, a product needs to contain at least 10% milk fat and 16.8% food solids.Ìý

There are plenty of products in the freezer aisle that don’t meet these requirements and so aren’t actually ice cream (according to the letter of the law).Ìý

If you look closely, some products might not actually have the word “ice cream” on the label at all – they might be called “vanilla classic”, “creamy vanilla flavoured”, “original” or something along these lines.Ìý

While Cornetto Classico packaging references “fresh milk and cream”, the nutrition panel is a little more specific about what’s actually in the pack: “Vanilla flavoured frozen dairy dessert”.Ìý

The ice cream in Crowns is the real deal, though. The packaging says it “includes 10% milk fat minimum”.

The post Cornetto vs Crowns taste test: Does the Aldi dupe taste as good as the original?Ìý appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• The best cheese slices
• What's in a slice of cheese?
• The science of melting and stretching
• Are cheese slices good for you?
• Can you freeze sliced cheese?
• How we tested cheese slices

But not all cheese slice products are created equal. We wanted to help you choose the best tasting, easiest-melting and healthiest one before you hand over your hard-earned cash.

ÌÇÐÄVlog looked at 16 different supermarket cheddar cheese slices (not the processed kind) and analysed them according to taste, smell, appearance, texture, meltability and nutrition, to help you choose the next lunchbox hit or cheese toastie hero.

The best cheese slices

Our test revealed four top performers that come recommended by our experts.Ìý

The highest scoring product was Bega Farmers’ Tasty Natural Cheese Slices, with a balanced flavour and a slightly sweet finish.Ìý

In second place we have a light cheese, Cheer Light and Tasty 25% Less Fat Natural Cheeses Slices. These made the list because of their high Health Star Rating (HSR) and good sensory score.Ìý

Third and fourth place were taken out by two Coles own-brand products: Coles Vintage Cheddar Slices and Coles Tasty Cheddar Slices. Our testers rated the flavour of these products well in both their regular and melted form.Ìý

1. Bega Farmers’ Tasty Natural Cheese Slices

ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 79%

Sensory score: 91%

Meltability score: 95%

HSR: 2.5

Price: $2.20 for 100g

Experts say: “Good appearance and colour. Unmelted, the flavour is good, savoury with a slight sweet finish. Salt level is good. Aroma is good and savoury. Cheese melts with slight oil, but with a little stretch and the flavour is balanced.”

2. Cheer Light ‘n Tasty 25% Less Fat Natural Cheese Slices

ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 74%

Sensory score: 70%

Meltability score: 52%

HSR: 4.5

Price: $2.20 for 100g

Experts say: “Slightly unevenly shaped cheese. Good colour with some air holes. Fruity aroma and fruity slightly bitter flavour. Mild melted flavour with fruity flavour notes. Dry, slightly tough texture of cold cheese. Melted cheese has no sheen and has a short texture with no stretch.”

3. Coles Vintage Cheddar Slices

ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 73%Ìý

Sensory score: 92%Ìý

Meltability score: 86%Ìý

HSR: 1.5Ìý

Price: $2.40 for 100gÌý

Experts say: “Strong aroma, very nice flavour (vintage), nice dry texture, very good balanced flavour, not much stretchability, very nice flavour after melted, a very good one.”

4. Coles Tasty Cheddar Slices

ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 71%Ìý

Sensory score: 88%Ìý

Meltability score: 90%Ìý

HSR: 1.5 Price: $1.58 for 100gÌý

Experts say: “The appearance is a little light in colour. Strong full aroma with good texture. Slight bitter finish with umami. Cheese melts evenly with a little stretch. Some oil loss, but good savoury flavour and finish.”

What’s in a slice of cheese?

Cheddar is a hard English cheese originating from the village of – you guessed it – Cheddar.Ìý

It’s made by adding bacteria and rennet enzymes to warm milk to curdle it. The milk then separates into curd (which is solid) and whey (which is watery).Ìý

The whey is drained, and the curd is then ripened by heating and cut into pieces. The pieces are stacked on top of each other to expel more whey. This process is repeated until the cheese develops its unique flavour profile.

But it’s not finished yet! It’s then cut into small chips, salted, and then pressed some more.Ìý

The cheddar then goes on to be aged, which can take anywhere between one month for a mild cheddar to two years for a vintage cheddar.

‘Tasty cheese’ is basically an Aussie term used to describe an aged cheddar.

The science of melting and stretching

Who doesn’t love a good melted cheese? When cheese melts, two things happen: the milk fat begins to melt at around 32°C, causing fat beads to rise to the surface, then at around 65°C the protein bonds of the cheese break, causing it to become soft and gooey.Ìý

Harder cheeses with less moisture require a higher heat to melt because their protein bonds are closely knitted together, while softer cheeses will melt at around 55°C.Ìý

Most cheeses leak melted fat that you can see if you look very closely at our picture of the grilled cheese samples.

Notice how samples 4 and 8 don’t have the fat pooling on the surface and the surface looks slightly wrinkly? These samples were the light cheeses.

Are cheese slices good for you?

There are two types of pre-packaged cheese slices that you can buy at the supermarket.Ìý

One is what’s considered ‘unprocessed’, which means it’s the same as a block of cheese, but sliced. This was the type we tested.

The other is called ‘processed’ cheese slices, which is a cheaper food product that may include thickeners, other fats and emulsifiers. These products are required to state that they are “processed” on the label.

So it stands to reason that unprocessed cheese slices are as good for you as regular cheese.Ìý

Cheddar cheese contains four basic ingredients: milk, salt, cultures and rennet enzymes. It’s nutrient-dense, it’s a good source of calcium and protein, and it can certainly make up part of a healthy diet.

The cheese slices we looked at were on average 26% protein. And one cheese slice (serving) can give you on average 19% of your daily calcium needs.

How many kilojoules or calories are there in a cheese slice?

Of the samples we looked at, a regular cheese slice had about 320kJ (77 calories) per slice.

The lower fat cheese slices had around 250kJ (or 59 calories) per slice.Ìý

No evidence of increased heart disease riskÌý

Research from the Heart Foundation has established that, despite the higher saturated fat content found in cheese, eating cheese (as well as milk and yoghurt) does not increase your risk of heart disease.Ìý

That’s good news for all those cheese lovers out there, but this advice doesn’t mean you should get all your dietary fat from cheese.Ìý

The fat in your diet should still come primarily from fish, nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, and healthy oils made from these ingredients.

Can you freeze sliced cheese?

Yes, you can freeze cheese slices. But the meltability won’t be as good as it was before freezing, and the texture of lower fat cheeses will be particularly negatively impacted by freezing.Ìý

It’s probably a good idea to put baking paper between the slices so that they don’t get stuck together.

How we tested cheese slices

We tested pre-packaged unprocessed cheese slice products available in major Australian supermarket chains including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA. The price per 100g is based on the pack price in Sydney stores (not on special) in May 2024.

Tasting

Our panel of three experts tasted the cheese slice samples ‘blind’ (without knowing the brands). Samples were tasted cold (unmelted) and also warm (melted on toast), and each sample was independently judged on appearance, aroma, flavour, texture and meltability.

Here’s a breakdown of the sensory weightings:

• Flavour (40%)
• Texture (30%)
• Aroma (20%)
• Appearance (10%)

Scores

The ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating, our overall score, consists of 60% sensory score, 30% nutrition score (consisting wholly of the Health Star Rating) and 10% meltability score.Ìý

Meet the taste testers

Petra Sugiarto has an academic background in food science and technology and food microbiology. She has been working in the food industry for more than 20 years, in particular the dairy industry in various applications – including yoghurt, cheese, ice cream/gelato, desserts and additionally in plant-based applications.Ìý

Penny LawsonÌýis a self-diagnosed ‘curd nerd’, with 20 years’ of experience in the food industry, including dairy judging at RAS produce competitions in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and the AGDA. She’s been at the forefront of the specialty cheese sector as a retailer and commentator, and is a passionate supporter and promoter of Australian producers.Ìý

Tiffany Beer is a consultant food technologist who works in food safety and compliance. She is passionate about good food and is a dairy product judge and associate cheese judge for the Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Produce Show, and a dairy products judge for the AGDA.

The post The best cheese slices from Aldi, Coles, Woolies, Bega, Cracker Barrel and more appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• What we tested
• Homemade vs store-bought: The ingredients
• Can you tell the difference between homemade and store-bought?
• Which ice cream tasted the best?
• Would you make your own ice cream?
• Reasons why you might make your own ice cream
• Our homemade ice cream recipe

But recently the planets aligned and two complementary tests occurred at the same time: vanilla ice cream and home ice cream makers.Ìý

Since we like to put our money where our mouths are, we decided it’d be interesting to see how ice cream from a shop compared with ice cream made in our kitchen lab.Ìý

(Okay, okay: we really just wanted to eat ice cream. For science, though. Our intentions were good.)

We had so many questions. Would anyone be able to tell the difference? Which one would taste better? Would anyone be inspired to make their own ice cream at home? Would there be leftovers we could binge on afterwards? (That last one was mostly me, and the answer was no – as if there’s ever any ice cream left behind!)

Here’s the scoop on what happened.

What we tested

A total of 17 ÌÇÐÄVlog staff volunteered as taste testers. (Yes, we expected more too!)

Here’s what we fed them:

• Store-bought: Coles Irresistible Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (which topped our vanilla ice cream review).
• Homemade: Ice cream made in the Cuisinart The Cool Scoop machine, using a recipe from ÌÇÐÄVlog kitchen expert Fiona Mair. (See below for the recipe.)

Participants tasted each sample blind (meaning they didn’t know which was which), then we asked them to guess which was the homemade ice cream and which one they liked the most.

We also grilled them about their reasons for choosing the ones they did – there’s no such thing as a free lunch, right?

Homemade vs store-bought: The ingredients

Let’s take a look inside the bowl before we delve into the taste test results.

Homemade ice cream is beautifully simple, made from just a few, whole food ingredients.Ìý

Read the ingredients list on most supermarket ice creams, however, and you’ll have to trawl through a long list ofÌý³¾³Ü±ô³Ù¾±²õ²â±ô±ô²¹²ú¾±³¦Ìýterms that don’t sound much like food: “reconstituted buttermilk and/or reconstituted skim milk”, “milk solids non-fat”, “guar gum”, “dextrose monohydrate”, “carrageenan” and even “processed Eucheuma seaweed”.Ìý

Four ice creams we tested even contain gelatine derived from beef – so if you’re vegetarian, make sure you read the label first.Ìý

Here’s how the ingredients in our two samples stack up:

Can you tell the difference between homemade and store-bought?

Now we know what’s in them, let’s get to the most important part: how did they taste?

It seems there was a clear difference between the two ice creams: almost all taste testers correctly guessed which was the homemade ice cream. Only two out of 17 people thought the Coles ice cream tasted homemade.Ìý

How could they tell which was homemade?

• Colour: Our testers said that the homemade sample’s colour had a more ivory or yellow tone than the store-bought ice cream.Ìý
• Texture: Most people said the homemade ice cream seemed softer and fluffier, and it melted a little faster than the supermarket sample.Ìý
• Flavour: Our testers found the homemade sample’s flavour was more subtle – which was considered a good or bad thing depending on the person. Some people preferred the stronger flavour of the shop-bought ice cream, while others liked the more restrained sweetness and vanilla flavour of the homemade version.

Which ice cream tasted the best?

Despite most people correctly identifying the homemade sample, that didn’t mean it was everybody’s favourite. The results were pretty evenly split:Ìý

• Nine people preferred the Coles ice cream
• Eight people preferred the homemade ice cream

So there you have it: most people can tell the difference between homemade and store-bought, but homemade isn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. Bear that in mind if you’re thinking of whipping up a batch for your next dinner party.Ìý

Would you make your own ice cream?

Despite many of our testers loving the homemade ice cream, plenty also said they’d be unlikely to make their own ice cream at home.

“Who can be bothered?” says Andy, also citing kitchen space as another reason he wouldn’t.Ìý

“It’s time consuming and I’d become impatient,” says Erin.Ìý

“We have made it in the past, but it was too much trouble,” Scott says. “We don’t eat enough to make it worthwhile.”

“I don’t eat it enough so the effort wouldn’t be worth the payoff,” says Liam. “Also, I live with family who would take it without asking!”

Reasons why you might make your own ice cream

There are plenty of options at the supermarket, so why would anyone go to the trouble of making it themselves?Ìý

• Fun: Craving wasabi and ginger ice cream? You won’t find it in the shops, but you can create it at home. You’re only limited by your imagination (and whether anyone will actually eat your concoctions).Ìý
• Control over the ingredients: DIYing your ice cream allows you to leave out any ingredients you’re not keen on consuming. You can make allergy-friendly or vegan ice cream and you can also make it additive-free, and even dial down the sugar or use alternative sweeteners. (That means you can eat more of it, right?)
• Use up produce:ÌýStrawberry plants going bananas? Gone troppo buying mangos? There’s only so much jam and chutney one person can make – but you can get the most out of the bounty by whipping up your own flavoured ice cream.
• Satisfaction: There’s a certain type of home chef who just gets a thrill out of making something from scratch. You can serve it up at your next dinner party and casually drop into the conversation that you made it from scratch, then sit back and bask in the praise.Ìý

Our homemade ice cream recipe

Our expert kitchen tester Fiona Mair uses this recipe to test ice cream makers in our lab.Ìý

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups full cream milk
• 1 ½ cups thickened cream
• 4 egg yolks
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scrapedÌý

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, gently heat the cream, milk, vanilla pod and seeds until very hot, but not boiling. Reduce temperature and simmer for 10 mins, stirring occasionally.Ìý
2. Place egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, whisk on high speed until thickened (approximately 2 minutes).
3. Gradually stir in 1 cup of the heated cream and milk to the egg and sugar. Mix until combined.
4. Pour egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly until thickened but not boiling. Mixture should be steaming.Ìý
5. The custard is ready when it coats the back of the wooden spoon, and the custard stays separated when you run your finger along the back of the spoon. The temperature should reach 82–85°C.
6. Pour custard into a glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap placed directly on the custard. Place in the fridge until the custard temperature reaches 3–4°C – usually overnight.
7. Pour into the prepared ice cream maker and process according to the ice cream manufacturer’s instructions. Process until mixture reaches a consistency of soft serve and increases in volume. A perfect churning consistency temperature should be less than 4°C.
8. Place ice cream into a container and place in a freezer with a stable temperature of -18°C (±2°C).Ìý

The post Homemade vs supermarket ice cream: Which tastes better? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• Nutrition
• Faba milk vs pistachio milk: Which tastes better?

Just when you thought they’d managed to squeeze milk out of every living thing on earth, in comes the latest plant-based milks on the market: faba (or fava) bean and pistachio milk.Ìý

But before you jump on this latest dairy-free milk trend, let’s see if these ‘milks’ are as good nutritionally as other plant-based milks on the market, and perhaps more importantly, do they taste any good?Ìý

We’ve taken a look at the Inside Out Faba Bean Milk and Inside Out Pistachio Milk and compared a few key details to some other popular plant-based milks on the market.Ìý

We chose brands readily available in supermarkets, including:

• two oat milks (Oatly Oat Milk and OMG Oat Milk Goodness)
• two almond milks (So Good Almond Barista Edition and Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk)
• two soy milks (Vitasoy Soy Milky Regular and Macro Certified Organic Soy Milk).

Nutrition

Plant-based milks are basically water with a small percentage of beans, oats or nuts. So in terms of ingredients, the difference comes down to what that small percentage is, and where it’s come from.

Protein

Nutritionally, the faba bean milk is a pretty good option with a Health Star Rating (HSR) of 4, not far off the average 4.5 HSR of soy milk products. This is because of the faba milk’s higher protein content at 4g per 100mL, compared with the nut milk average of less than 1g of protein per 100mL.

Kilojoules

Both the faba bean milk and the pistachio milk products are lower in kilojoules compared with oat and soy milks, and are closer to almond milk in this regard.Ìý

The faba bean and pistachio milks have an average of 126kJ per 100mL, while the oat and soy milks we compared them with contained an average 243kJ per 100mL.

Calcium

Not all the plant-based milks we assessed stated their calcium content.Ìý

Calcium is important if you intend to replace your dairy milk with a plant-based milk. If you aren’t getting that calcium from other sources, like cheese, leafy green vegetables or tofu, you’ll want your plant-based milk to have added calcium.Ìý

The Inside Out Faba Bean and Pistachio milks are fortified with 80mg calcium per 100mL. The other plant-based milks we looked at all contained more than 100mg of calcium per 100mL (where stated), which is considerably more.

Put another way, a serve of the faba or pistachio milks gives you 25% of your recommended daily intake (RDI) for calcium, while the fortified soy and almond milks we looked at would give you about 36% of your RDI.ÌýÌý

Carbohydrates

If you’re trying to reduce your carbohydrate intake, these new milks are a better option than the other plant-based milks we looked at. With 1.8g (faba bean) and 1.6g (pistachio) of carbohydrates per 100mL, they’re much lower in carbohydrates than the soy and almond milks we looked at, which contained an average of 4.7g per 100mL.Ìý

The only plant-based milk that was similarly lower in carbohydrates was the Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk, with 1.2g per 100mL.Ìý

Good to know: Both milks are made in Australia with more than 95% Australian ingredients.

Faba milk vs pistachio milk: Which tastes better?

We taste tested the Inside Out Faba Bean Milk and Pistachio Milk in three ways: on their own, with coffee, and with cereal. Here’s what our taste testers thought.

On their own

The pistachio milk appears like powder suspended in water and is drinkable on its own. It’s watery and similar to an almond milk with a nuttiness to it.

The faba milk was in a league of its own. If we could describe the taste and texture, it would be similar to the soy milk that was on the market in the ’90s. It’s thick and has a legume taste to it.

With coffee

The pistachio milk wasn’t too bad with coffee. It was slightly separated with gritty particles present, but the coffee overtakes the taste of the milk.

Faba milk is considered ‘barista-friendly’, which means it should work well with coffee and have frothing ability, so we were interested to assess this. As we shook the bottle before use, it was slightly frothy and appeared creamy, which was great. But the strong taste still overpowered the taste of the coffee.

With cerealÌý

As the pistachio milk is quite watery, it probably wouldn’t be one of those milks you’d drink after finishing the cereal from the bowl.

The faba milk is thicker than the pistachio milk, but the taste overpowered the cereal in a noticeable way.

The post Faba bean and pistachio milks: The new dairy alternatives appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

We tested 44 butters to find the best butter for your buck. The results might surprise you.ÌýCan you budget on butter and still come out on top? You’d butter believe it!

Salty goodness

If you’re feeling a little salty about grocery prices increasing, you’ll be pleased to know that one of the top-scoring salted butters in our test is actually a supermarket own-brand product: Coles Australian Butter Salted.Ìý

Scoring 74%, it tied for third place with Ballantyne Traditional Salted Butter, which costs more than twice as much.Ìý

First and second spots were taken out by Kerrygold and Lurpak, which both cost $2 more per pack than Coles’ butter and come from Ireland and Denmark, respectively, so you’re paying more for food miles as well.Ìý

Not far behind was Woolworths’ brand Macro, which scored 73%. It costs 60 cents more than the Coles butter but is organic.Ìý

Aldi’s Beautifully Butterfully trailed a little further behind with a score of 71%. Strangely, the Aldi product wasn’t the cheapest of the supermarket butters, priced the same as Woolies’ organic offering. Perhaps the German giant isn’t always the cheapest shop on the block after all.

Hold the salt

Competition in the unsalted butter category was stiff and the supermarket brands didn’t do quite as well as they did in the salted category.Ìý

Woolworths Macro was the highest-scoring supermarket unsalted butter (71%), scoring considerably better than Coles (68%), Coles Organic (68%) and Aldi Beautifully Butterfully (67%).Ìý

While Woolies’ organic label performed reasonably well, the same can’t be said for its standard butter, which sat towards the bottom of the pile with scores of 61% (unsalted) and 65% (salted).Ìý

However, if you’re after a reasonably-priced unsalted butter, Westgold Unsalted New Zealand Grass-Fed Butter is a good bet: it was the highest-scoring unsalted butter of all and costs $1.25 per 100g, which is about the same as (and even less than) some supermarket butters. Sure, it comes from across the Tasman, but that’s still far fewer food miles than butter made in Europe.

The post Is budget butter better? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

But how do you know which type of cooking fat is the best to use and why?

Considering taste, cost and health considerations, CHOCIE home economist Fiona Mair and nutrition expert Shadia Djakovic break down the pros and cons of cooking with butter versus different types of oils.Ìý

Beautiful butter

Butter is an ingredient that needs little introduction. It’s probably spread daily on your sandwiches and toast, used to make your sauces, scrambled eggs and baked goods and added to many of your meats and fishes. We love it so much, we have a whole article on the mouth-watering potential of this spread.

So why is it so damn good?

“Butter adds flavour and creaminess to foods, richness to sauces and can help balance strong acidic foods like tomato sauces and lemon-heavy hollandaise,” says Fiona.Ìý

Butter can also be vital in baking, acting as a carrier for creaming sugar and adding pockets of air to give baked goods a lighter, fluffier crumb. When it comes to pastries, butter is a must to help you develop that flaky texture.Ìý

“Butter is also essential for making a roux for white sauce or adding richness to a jus, or any sauce that requires thickening without using starch,” says Fiona.

Lasting for up to eight weeks in the fridge, this versatile cooking fat won’t go to waste. It’s also one ingredient you don’t always have to splurge on. In our recent butter taste test,Ìýone of the top-scoring salted butters is actually a supermarket own-brand product: Coles Australian Butter Salted.Ìý

Scoring 74%, it tied for third place with Ballantyne Traditional Salted Butter, which costs more than twice as much.Ìý

The downsides of butter

It may be heavenly in your pastries but, and we’re sure it’s no surprise, butter doesn’t have the best rap sheet when it comes to health. ÌÇÐÄVlog food and nutrition expert Shadia Djakovic says, “Butter is high in saturated fat, which, when consumed regularly, can increase the risk of developing high cholesterol, and high cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease.”

“Replacing butter with monounsaturated oils, such as olive oil, can reduce bad cholesterol in the body and is associated with better heart health outcomes,” she says.

Butter isn’t always the best choice for the style of cooking, either. As the saying goes, if you can’t take the heat, then get out of the kitchen, and this applies to butter too. Butter can’t withstand higher temperatures the way oil can, due to the milk solids in the spread.

If you still want a buttery taste but need to cook something on a high heat, Fiona recommends using oil to fry on a high temperature and adding butter later, at a lower temperature.Ìý

The pros of using oil in your cooking

Oils are international agents, shining in Spanish, Italian, Greek, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and South-East Asian cuisines.

“In pizza doughs, focaccias and flat breads, oil allows the dough to stretch and become flexible. It also helps the dough to increase in volume while proving,” says Fiona.Ìý

Oil is a multitasker, great for deep frying and getting foods such as donuts, fish and chips and fritters nice and crispy, while also aiding emulsification of things like homemade hummus, mayonnaise, pesto and salad dressings.Ìý

In the baking department, oil can give cakes a moist crumb and “may even allow cakes to stay moist and tender for longer than those made with butter,” says Fiona.

To help you find the perfect oil for what you’re cooking, check out our cooking oil guide.Ìý

Health benefits of oils

Oils, and in particular olive and canola oil, can be beneficial for your overall health, including heart and cognitive health, when used in moderation.Ìý

Shadia says, “Canola oil is rivalling olive oil in the health space with some research suggesting it can lower bad cholesterol more than olive oil.”

If you want to learn more about the potential health benefits of other types of oils, read our articles on coconut and avocado oil.Ìý

The downsides of cooking with oil

While there are no hard and fast rules in the creative art of cooking, there are some dishes that butter is essential for, adding richness and creaminess to recipes such as white sauces.Ìý

Although there are some outliers (hey Aldi Olive Oil, we’re looking at you!), the olive oils that performed best in our recent olive oil review tend to be the more expensive products. Which means if you choose low-quality olive oil you might be disappointed in its taste. It’s also important to store olive oil correctly to ensure it doesn’t deteriorate in quality and flavour. Find out more with our top 5 tips for choosing and storing olive oil.Ìý

ÌÇÐÄVlog verdict: Butter or oil?

When it comes to what will taste better in your cooking, consider the food you’re cooking or baking and choose based on which one will deliver optimal flavour in your dish.Ìý

Also remember that butter will smoke on a high temperature, so if you’re cranking up your cooktop, avoid the chaos of a false fire alarm and use oil, adding the butter later if you wish.

When it comes to health, olive and canola oil are shown to have the best health outcomes. But if you’re a firm believer in everything being better with butter, consider aÌýbutter that contains less saturated fat.Ìý

When it comes to price, there isn’t a huge difference between the two when you compare the prices of the products that our ÌÇÐÄVlog experts have rated as the best, but the ongoing costs for each product will obviously depend on how frequently you use the butter or oil and at what quantity.Ìý

Our top-scoring butters cost from $1.25 per 100g to $3.08 per 100g and our top-scoring olive oils cost from 90c per 100ml to $2.40 per 100ml.

The post Should you cook with butter or oil? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

ÌÇÐÄVlog home economist Fiona Mair breaks down all the things you can, should and didn’t know you could do with butter to make your meals infinitely better.Ìý

And if you want to embrace more beautiful butter in your cooking, it’s important you choose a great-tasting butter that’ll really shine as an ingredient. To help you out, ÌÇÐÄVlog experts have blind taste-tested and reviewed a huge range of supermarket butters to see which is the cream of the crop.Ìý

Compound butter for fish, meats and breads

You can instantly upgrade fish, meats or bread by making a simple butter compound. Butter compounds are savoury or sweet mixtures of butter and other ingredients that you can use to add flavour when cooking fish and meats, or use to spread on breads for a next-level loaf.Ìý

Not only are they easy to make, but can be stored in the fridge and freezer and used at a moment’s notice to transform Friday night’s fish or Sunday night’s steak into a mouthwatering dish.

Savoury compounds

To make a savoury butter compound, Fiona recommends using fresh, leafy herbs such as parsley, tarragon, mint, sage, oregano or basil.Ìý

“Rosemary can be used but you should remove the leaves form the stalks and chop the leaves finely. Dried herbs can also be used but are better suited for compounds that are being cooked, such as when adding to steak before cooking it,” she says.

For 250g of butter, add up to ¼ cup of herbs (a little less if using strong herbs such as tarragon or rosemary). Process in a food processor or hand mixer on high for 40 to 60 seconds. You can also add extra flavour with ingredients such as chives, garlic, lemon or lemon zest.Ìý

Sweet compounds

Making your own sweet butter compounds will turn pancakes, waffles, scones or banana bread into a cafe-worthy dish.Ìý

“Using the same method, pulse 250g of butter with roasted chopped pecans and maple syrup,” suggests Fiona.Ìý

You can also try a berry butter. Stew berries with lemon and sugar, strain and process with butter, then serve with scones, bagels or banana bread.Ìý

How to store

It’s logging time! Once you’ve whipped up your compound, place it on a large piece of parchment paper, fold the paper over and tuck under the butter. Use some pressure to form it into a log and lastly fold the ends of parchment and seal.Ìý

“Store the butter in a plastic bag or foil to stop the fridge or freezer odours from penetrating the butter,” says Fiona.

Potatoes that’ll melt in your mouth

Just like cheese and toast, potatoes and butter are a match made in carb heaven. There are so many ways to serve up spuds, but we guarantee that, no matter which way you choose, butter will take your taters to incredible new heights.Ìý

Potato bakes and au gratins

When it comes to potato bakes and au gratins you’ll want to use a heavy hand with butter for best results. Grease the baking dish with butter to add flavour and stop potatoes from sticking to the bottom. For a brown and crispy top layer, add dabs of butter on the top before baking.

Mashed potatoes

“The best mashed potatoes will always include butter in my opinion, but the trick to get best results is how you incorporate it,” says Fiona.Ìý

After mashing boiled potatoes, add a couple tabs of butter and put back on the stove at a low temperature. Allow the butter to melt through, mixing with a wooden spoon, then add desired amount of milk. Beat with the wooden spoon until creamy and smooth for a silky, buttery mash that’s just perfection.

Roast potatoes

If you haven’t been adding butter to your roast potatoes, we’re here to tell you it’s a game changer! Fiona recommends adding equal parts butter and oil to your potatoes – this will add maximum flavour but the oil will stop the butter from burning.Ìý

“Toss the potatoes in the oil before baking and add the butter in the last 20 minutes of cooking, along with fresh herbs and crushed garlic,” she says.

Porridge (yes, really!)

This unlikely place to add butter is Fiona-approved and will make your morning oats a reason to get out of bed.

“Adding butter and brown sugar to steel-cut oats gives exceptional flavour and richness. Try toasting the oats in butter then making the porridge or frying bananas in butter and topping with brown sugar to add to your cooked oats,” she says.

DIY shortcrust pastry

Made by hand or with a food processor Fiona’s easy DIY buttery shortcrust pastry can be used for sweet or savoury pies, pasties, rolls and tarts. It can also be kept frozen for up to six months for a spur-of-the-moment meal or dessert.

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
125g chilled diced butter
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
5–6 tablespoons of chilled water

Method

Place flour, baking powder, salt and butter in a medium or large food processor bowl.

Process on high for approximately 30 seconds (or pulse 10 times) until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add egg yolk, lemon juice and water through the feed chute.Ìý

Process on high until dough forms a smooth ball (approximately 1 minute).Ìý

If the mixture is too dry, add a little water, or if too wet, add a tablespoon of flour.Ìý

Remove from the bowl and shape into a flat round disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling out.Ìý

If using the pastry for a pie, use two-thirds of the pastry for the base and the remaining third for the top.Ìý

Always blind bake the base of the pastry before adding a filling (using baking beads, dried beans or rice).Ìý

Brown butter on everything

Brown butter is butter that has been gently cooked slightly past its melting point to give it a deliciously nutty flavour and aroma. It’s ideal for using as a sauce, pouring over meat or pasta, or in baked goods.Ìý

“This is such an easy and versatile sauce because it can carry sweet or savoury flavours,” says Fiona.

To get the butter to nut-brown, add butter to a preheated saucepan and melt on a medium heat. Stir until it starts to turn brown without letting it smoke. “Pour as is over soft polenta, popcorn and steamed vegies or add to cake and biscuit batters in place of butter for a nutty butterscotch flavour,” Fiona says.

Other ingredients that can be added once the butter is brown include herbs, parmesan cheese, garlic and chopped nuts.

Better scrambled eggs

Watery hotel buffet scramble eggs be gone! The best scrambled eggs are rich and buttery, and Fiona recommends adding 1 tablespoon of butter for every two eggs. Just melt in the pan before stirring in your whisked eggs.

DIY crumble topping

Butter is a must-have addition when making a quick and easy crumble – the perfect crowd-pleasing dessert and a great way to use up overripe fruits such as apples or berries.Ìý

You can also make a crumble topping in advance and keep it frozen in an airtight container for up to two months. To make it, just blitz unsalted butter, flour, oats and brown sugar, sprinkle over fruit and bake.Ìý

Should you choose salted or unsalted butter?

Both salted and unsalted butters are useful in cooking, and it basically comes down to a flavour preference. Unsalted butter is usually specified in baking and pastry recipes, as they may call for the addition of extra salt and, by adding the salt yourself, you can have control over how much is added and the resulting flavour.

The salt quantity in different brands of salted butter can vary, so its best used as a spread or in recipes such as savoury compound butters.If you’re trying to reduce salt in your diet, you should of course opt for unsalted.

Unsalted butter may also have a shorter shelf life than salted, so it is usually fresher butter.ÌýTo find out more about how salted vs unsalted butters performed in our taste test, read our ÌÇÐÄVlog expert butter review.

The post Things that are dramatically improved by adding butter appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• Best tasting unsalted butter
• Best tasting salted butter
• Best tasting cultured butter
• What is butter made of?
• What is cultured butter?
• The science of butter
• How we test

Butter is made from essentially just one ingredient – cream – so you’d be forgiven for thinking that all butter must taste the same. But its flavour and texture can differ depending on whether it’s salted, salt reduced or unsalted, how well it’s blended, whether it’s cultured or not, where it’s from and what the cows feed on, among other things.Ìý

So which butter tastes best? We blind tasted and reviewed 44 butters, from brands including Devondale, Lurpak, Mainland, Pepe Saya and Western Star, to find out which is the cream of the crop.Ìý

We categorised the butter into three groups: unsalted, salted and cultured.Ìý

Boasting a “rich golden colour” and “unique creamy flavour and smooth mouthfeel”, Westgold’s Unsalted New Zealand Grass-fed Butter scored the highest in the unsalted butter category with a ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating of 75%.Ìý

The highest-scoring salted butters were Kerrygold Pure Irish Salted Butter (with a ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating of 79%) and Lurpak’s Slightly Salted Butter (76%). The Kerrygold salted product was also the best performing butter overall in our taste test.

As for the cultured category, Tasmania took out the top prize with its Meander Valley Salted Cultured Butter scoring 76%. However,Ìýat $3.08 per 100g,Ìýit’s on the more expensive side compared with the top performers in the other categories (Westgold Unsalted New Zealand Grass-fed Butter isÌý$1.25 per 100gÌýand Kerrygold Pure Irish Salted Butter isÌý$2.40 per 100g).Ìý

Here are the top performing butters in our test, listed by category.

Best tasting unsalted butter

Westgold Unsalted New Zealand Grass-fed ButterÌý

ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 75%

Price per 100g: $1.25

Country of origin: New ZealandÌý

Experts say: “Mild creamy aroma, fresh, clean flavour and aftertaste”. “Slightly cheesy smell, mild dairy aroma”.

Best tasting salted butter

Kerrygold Pure Irish Salted Butter

ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 79%

Price per 100g: $2.40

Country of origin:ÌýIreland

Experts say:Ìý“Smooth, yellow, irregular appearance, mild butter aroma with salty butter taste”. “Good body and texture”.

Lurpak Slightly Salted Butter

ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 76%

Taste test score: 84%

Price per 100g: $2.40

Country of origin: Denmark

Experts say: “Delicate saltiness, not overpowering, mild flavour, short finish and aftertaste, melts quickly”. “Smooth texture and pale, even colour”.

Best tasting cultured butter

Meander Valley Salted Cultured Butter

ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating: 76%

Price per 100g: $3.08

Country of origin: Australia

Experts say: “Subtle cultured butter flavour”. “Creamy flavour and texture”. “Smells amazing”. “Fair spreadability”. “Bit firm”.

What is butter made of?

Butter is nothing more than cream, with salt sometimes added. So how does it go from cream to butter?

In ‘On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen’, sometimes referred to as ‘the chef’s bible’, author Harold McGee describes making butter as a simple but laborious task created by agitating a container of cream until the fat globules are damaged and the fat leaks out and sticks together in masses large enough to gather. These solids form the butter, and what is left over is buttermilk.

It may seem like there’s not much to the taste of butter – which is essentially milk fat – but there are many factors that impact the flavour of the milk that makes the cream that then goes on to make the butter. The season, the environment, the cow’s breed, its feed and the processing all make a difference to the flavour of the milk.Ìý

As for the colour of butter, the amount of grass in a cow’s diet plays a role here. Grass gives the milk a yellow pigment, so cows that have less grass in their diet often produce a paler butter.

What is cultured butter?

Cultured butter is when the cream used to make the butter is slightly soured by adding lactic acid bacteria before or after it’s churned. This is common practice in Europe and the flavour has been described as a bit more sour and fuller than non-cultured butter.

When categorising butters for this test, we only included butters in the cultured category that specified ‘cultured’ on the front of the pack.

Is Australian butter good?

There seems to be an assumption that European butter, in particular French butter, is the best in the world. This may be because European butter usually has added cultures and often a higher fat content, which is believed to contribute to a better flavour and texture.

In our butter taste test, first and equal-second place went to European butters (from Ireland and Denmark), while an Australian product tied for second and a New Zealand product came third.ÌýÌýÌý

The one salted French butter that we taste-tested, President French-Made Salted Butter, was in the top 10 of results overall, but the President French-Made Unsalted Butter received the lowest score in its category with 59%.Ìý

Admittedly, we only tested two French-made products compared to the 29 Australian butters tested, but perhaps we can still conclude that Australian butter can be very good.

The science of butter

The connection between milk fat and taste

In Australia, butter must comprise at least 80% milk fat. Some say that the higher the milk fat percentage, the richer the butter tastes. However, we didn’t see a correlation between milk fat percentage and our taste test results.

For example, the product with the highest percentage of milk fat in our test, Meander Valley Cultured Salted Butter (86.6% milk fat), was in the top three scorers for taste alone (that is, not factoring in the nutrition component that makes up the overall score).

But the products with the next highest percentage of milk fat after Meander Valley (Coles Organic Unsalted Butter with 84.7% milk fat and Remarkable Milk Company True Organic Butter Unsalted with 84.6% milk fat) hovered around the middle of the list in terms of their taste performance.

The butter with the equal-lowest percentage of milk fat – Kerrygold Pure Irish Salted Butter, 80% – was the one that took out the top spot in our test, both overall and for taste alone.

Is grass-fed butter better for you?

Most cows (about 98%) in Australia are free to graze on pastures. However, grass-fed cows don’t only eat grass. In Australia their diet is about 60–65% grass, with additional nutrition coming from hay, grains and legumes to provide a complete and balanced diet.

Grass-fed dairy has a slightly different nutritional profile to dairy products that come from regular-fed cows. Grass-fed cows produce milk with a slightly higher omega-3 content, beta-carotene and beneficial fats, so grass-fed butter may be slightly better for you than butter made with cream from cows not predominantly fed grass.Ìý

Fourteen of the butters in this test were specified to be from grass-fed cows, with two of them labelled as coming from ‘free-grazing cows’.

Spreadability

There is a science to making butter spreadable, and it’s all about the crystals and the free fats.Ìý

After the cream is pasteurised, it’s cooled and left at 5℃ for about eight hours. This process causes about half of the milk fat in the globules to form crystals. The amount and size of these crystals help determine the texture of the butter.Ìý

When the butter is finally produced, it’s a matrix of fat globules, solid crystals and water droplets that are embedded in a mass of semi-solid ‘free’ fat. A high proportion of ‘ordered’ crystals leads to butter that is stiff and firm when cold. The amount of crystals compared to free fat determines the butter’s spreadability. The free fat gives the butter more spreadability and tendency to leak liquid fat as the butter softens.Ìý

We had our expert taste testers comment on the spreadability of the salted butters on soft white bread.

If you’re keen to avoid shredded bread, here are some of the notable super spreaders:Ìý

• Ballantyne Salted Butter – “spreads easily when firm”; “nice spread, really easy”.
• Aldi Beautifully Butterfully Salted Butter – “best spreadability so far”; “smooth and easy to spread”.
• Absolute Organic Salted Butter – “spreads very easily, the softest of all butters”; “easy, spreads well”.
• Kerrygold Salted Butter – “texture is very good”; “easily spreadable”.ÌýÌý
• Dairy Farmers Salted Butter – “very good texture for spreading”.

What butter do top chefs use?

Butter is versatile and can be used for baking, sauces and frying (though for frying you’ll get a better result with clarified butter, which is butter that’s had the milk solids removed, as it has a higher burning point). Adam Moore, a chef and food consultant who was part of our expert tasting panel, says that butter adds “depth into sauces, mashed potatoes, purees and steak”.Ìý

Adam says the type of butter that top chefs use will depend on what they’re cooking, but they “usually use a cultured butter for more flavour”.

His hot tip for home cooks is to try cooking with smoked butter to elevate your roast chicken to the next level, and flavoured butter (sweet or savoury) to enhance any dish.

Tips for buying, storing and using butter

Buying

• Light and air can each cause oxidation of butter, which affects its taste. Oxidised butter is darker yellow on the outside where it has been exposed. Avoid buying inadequately wrapped products, and be mindful that butters packaged in semi-transparent white wrapping are more susceptible to surface oxidation than those wrapped in opaque foil due to risk of exposure to light during storage or transportation. Ìý
• Cultured butter has had live bacterial cultures added to the cream, which causes the butter to taste slightly tangier and have a more distinctive aroma. This is due to the fermentation process by the bacterial culture which converts milk sugar (lactose) into lactic acid. Culture was traditionally added to help extend the shelf life of butter, but today it’s more often done to create a unique flavour profile.Ìý

Using

• If serving butter at room temperature, only cut off the amount you know you’ll use and leave the rest in the fridge.Ìý
• If you need to bring cold butter to room temperature fast, expert taste tester Adam More suggests grating it.ÌýÌý
• Unsure whether to use salted or unsalted butter? ÌÇÐÄVlog home economist Fiona Mair says it’s not so important if you use salted or unsalted for your savoury meals as you can always adjust the salt throughout the cooking. Unsalted butter is ideal for sweet baking and savoury pastry as you won’t run the risk of the salt overpowering other flavours. It can be used in all other cooking – just add your own salt if needed.

Storing

• Storing butter requires coolness and darkness.Ìý
• Make sure your butter is tightly wrapped or stored in an airtight container. This will prevent exposure to oxygen and also prevent fridge odours from absorbing into the butter.Ìý
• Homemade butter will last in the fridge for up to two weeks, depending on the extraction of buttermilk and if salt was added.Ìý
• Butter can be frozen for up to 12 months if salted, and six months if unsalted.

How we test

Products

We tested butters that are available at major supermarket chains and online, including salted, unsalted and cultured varieties. Price is based on price in stores for a 250g block or closest (not on special) in September 2022. A total of 44 supermarket products were tested.Ìý

TastingÌý

Our experts tasted the butter samples blind (without knowing the brands) in a randomised order.

ScoresÌý

Experts independently judged all butters, scoring each sample for flavour and aroma, texture and presentation.Ìý

The overall score (what we call the ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating) is made up of taste 90% (50% flavour and aroma, 30% texture, 20% presentation) and nutrition 10% (100% Health Star Rating, calculated from the details in the nutrition information panel and converted to a percentage).Ìý

We recommend products with a ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating of 75% or more.

Meet our expert taste testers

Brigid Treloar has been a freelance food consultant for over 30 years. The author of eight cookbooks, she contributes to newspapers and magazines, reviews restaurants, judges cookery and recipe competitions, and judges chocolate in the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show Competition.ÌýBrigid is also an industry assessor for Le Cordon Bleu and advises many of Australia’s food companies on product and recipe development.

Penny Lawson is a self-diagnosed ‘curd nerd’ with 20 years’ experience in the food industry, including dairy judging at Royal Agricultural Society produce competitions in Sydney and Melbourne. She’s been at the forefront of the specialty cheese sector as a retailer and commentator and is a passionate supporter and promoter of Australian producers. You can find her tasting, selling and grilling cheese at her shop, Penny’s Cheese Shop, in Sydney’s Potts Point.Ìý

Petra Sugiarto has an academic background in food technology and microbiology and has been working in the food industry for more than 20 years, in particular the dairy industry in various applications including yoghurt, cheese, ice cream/gelato and dairy desserts. For the past 14 years she’s been on the judging panels for the Dairy Industry Association of Australia (DIAA) and Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Produce competitions and for the Australian Grand Dairy Awards.Ìý

Peter Commins recently retired from the NSW Food Authority after 44 years, during which time his main line of work was auditing Food Safety Programs – mainly with the dairy industry – for compliance to the Food Standards Code and Food Act. Peter has judged dairy produce for the DIAA and Sydney Royal competitions for more than three decades.Ìý

Amanda Athis has been involved in the hospitality industry for over 30 years. With qualifications in commercial cookery and hospitality management, she has seen all areas of the food industry from working in kitchens at the Sydney Opera House to operating as head chef and holding management positions in cafes and restaurants around Sydney. Amanda now enjoys sharing her skills and knowledge while lecturing at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary College, Sydney.

Daniel Abou-Chedid has more than a decade of experience as a professional chef and consultant within the food industry. He’s been a cooking ambassador for kitchen appliance brands, delivered live culinary demonstrations across Australia for companies including Domayne and Westfield, and made guest appearances as a chef for P&O Cruises. As well as his consulting work, Daniel runs the onsite catering business Fork n’ Knife, which he established, as well as Gosford eatery At Baker Street.

Adam Moore is a prolific culinary judge. His credits include judging for Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) Fine Food competitions across a range of categories. He has formal qualifications in pastry, charcuterie and butchery, sensory evaluation, food styling and food photography. With more than 25 years in the industry, he has worked in restaurants, food service, retail, food manufacturing, marketing and sales. He’s a certified global executive chef, and culinology director at Culinary Revolutions.

Andre Sanderson has worked, managed and taught as a pastry chef, with more than 25 years of industry experience across hotels, restaurants and production patisseries in Japan, Britain, Switzerland, China and Australia. He holds a diploma in Food Technology and has achieved the highest professional accolades competing in global patisserie and gelato competitions with success. As chocolatier at Zokoko, a Sydney-based bean to bar chocolate manufacturer, Andre develops both cafe and retail solutions addressing classic and emerging food trends.Ìý

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On this page:

• What is oat milk?
• Is oat milk good for you?
• Barista oat milk
• How to make oat milk
• Cheapest oat milk

It’s the vegan milk alternative du jour. In the US, oat milk has surpassed almond milk as the fastest-growing dairy alternative, and Australians’ interest in oat milk has increased roughly ten-fold over the past five years, according to Google Trends. And while soy and almond milk still dominate the category here, the grocery value of oat milk continues to rise.Ìý

So what actually is oat milk, how is it made, and is it good for you? We look at its pros and cons, and compare oat milk products from Chobani, Minor Figures, Oatly, Vitasoy and more.

What is oat milk?

Oat milk is a plant-based, vegan-friendly drink that – in its most basic form –Ìý is made by blending together oats and water and straining off the liquid.Ìý

You can use it for anything from fruit smoothies to baking, so it can make for a versatile alternative to cow’s milk if you’re vegan, allergic to milk, or lactose-intolerant. You might also simply prefer the taste.

But it’s not always suitable as a direct substitute for cow’s milk. And some store-bought oat milk products are better for you than others.

See our recipe for homemade oat milk.

Is oat milk good for you?

Oat milk is not as good for you as the healthy-sounding claims on the label would have you believe – especially compared to cow’s milk. It is, however, lactose-free, low in saturated fat, cholesterol-free and it contains beta-glucan, a type of soluble fibre found in oats.

Oat milk vs cow’s milk

There’s a reason why the nutrient profile of cow’s milk sets the bar as the gold standard for milk drinks.ÌýNicole Dynan, accredited practising dietitian (APD) and owner and director of The Good Nutrition Co explains.

“Cow’s milk provides 8g of protein per cup – about 60% of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for toddlers and 40% of the RDA for children. In addition, the quality of cow’s milk proteins is high – 20% whey and 80% casein – both of which contain all nine essential amino acids.

“Cow’s milk is also a good source of other nutrients including calcium, iodine and a range of vitamins,” she adds.

The nutritional credentials of oat milk aren’t quite so impressive.

Protein and calcium

Tania Ferraretto, APD, says, “Oat milk contains less protein than cow’s milk. Oat milk is also naturally low in calcium, although some brands fortify their oat milk.”

If you eat dairy, or regularly include other good sources of protein and calcium in your diet, then this isn’t an issue. But for people needing a cow’s milk replacement – such as infants and children who are allergic – oat milk isn’t a nutritionally adequate substitute.Ìý

Catherine Saxelby, accredited nutritionist with Foodwatch (who refers to plant-based milk as ‘mylk’, with a ‘y’, so as to distinguish it from mammalian milk from cows, goats etc.) is of the opinion that it should be called oat water, not oat milk, as it sports only about 10% oats on average.Ìý

“Unless it’s fortified, it’s definitely not for any calcium-requiring teens in your household,” she says.

Fat

Oat milk is lower in fat and saturated fat than cow’s milk, and this can be a selling point for those looking to reduce their fat intake.

But it’s one of the key reasons why oat milk – or indeed reduced-fat cow’s milk and other plant-based milk alternatives – isn’t suitable as the main milk drink for young children, as they need the fat to help meet their energy requirements for healthy development.

Fibre

Fibre content is one area where oat milk trumps cow’s milk nutritionally, and certainly oats are known for being a good source of heart-healthy soluble fibre beta-glucan. So is it truly a perk?

Increasing your beta-glucan intake can certainly be beneficial. Dynan cites a study in men which found that drinking about three cups of oat milk daily over five weeks reduced total blood cholesterol by 3% and “bad” LDL cholesterol by 5%. Another study observed that, on average, consuming 3g of oat beta-glucans daily lowered “bad” LDL blood cholesterol by 5–7%.

“Beta-glucan may also help increase feelings of fullness and lower blood sugar levels after a meal,” she says.

Ferraretto says: “Some oat milks do provide beta-glucan, a fibre which can help lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels.”Ìý

“However, there are other dietary sources of beta-glucan, including rolled oats, oat bran and barley,” she continues.

Saxelby agrees. “If it’s beta-glucan you’re after, you’re better off eating more rolled oats – porridge for breakfast, for example – or using oats or oat bran more in baking.”

Sugar

All of the commercial oat milks we looked at did not contain added sugar (although you can get flavoured varieties that do). That said, oat milk is a naturally sweet drink – it contains up to double the carbohydrates of cow’s milk – which some people might find appealing.

“It has a light, semi-sweet taste, so substitutes well for low-fat or skim milk,” says Saxelby.

Choosing oat milk

If you’re considering oat milk as a replacement for cow’s milk, and not just as a tasty drink, these are our top tips.

• Don’t use it as a complete cow’s milk substitute for children under five years of age – it’s not as nutritious.
• Avoid it if you’re gluten intolerant – it’s not gluten-free.
• Choose a product that’s calcium-fortified. Check the nutrition information panel for products with 120mg calcium per 100mL (the same amount that’s in reduced-fat cow’s milk).
• If you’re lactose intolerant, allergic to dairy milk, or follow a vegan diet, consult with an APD to ensure you’re making the right choice of milk substitute.

Barista oat milk

Oat milk is increasingly being used for making coffee, and baristas are reportedly embracing it – perhaps because its flavour isn’t as dominant (or polarising) as that of soy or almond milk. As one industry source says, “It’s the first non-dairy milk that strikes a harmonious balance with coffee”.

It’s perhaps not surprising that half of the oat milk alternatives we found on supermarket shelves are described as “barista style” or “barista quality”.

Barista versions often cost more than regular oat milks. But do they produce better results for your espresso coffee?

Oatly Oat Milk Barista Edition, for example, claims to be “fully foamable putting you in total control over the density and performance of your foam so you can showcase your latte art skillz”.

For fun, we put Oatly Oat Milk Barista Edition and Oatly Oat Milk Original to the test, and included cow’s milk for comparison.

We poured samples of the three different milks into coded stainless steel jugs, and a ÌÇÐÄVlog test officer (who’s also a trained barista), made us three cups of coffee and gave feedback (without the benefit of knowing which sample was which).

About the barista oat milk, he told us, “It’s obvious from the darker colour that this sample isn’t cow’s milk. It handles well, but the fine bubbles dissipate faster than in cow’s milk, leaving behind a more airy, open foam.”

About the original oat milk, he said, “Again, I can tell by its appearance that this sample isn’t cow’s milk. It’s faster to heat than the other oat milk sample, however, when the foam hits the coffee it spreads quickly and doesn’t hold its pouring pattern as nicely.”

How to make oat milk

With just two ingredients and minimal equipment you can make your own oat milk at home using this simple recipe from ÌÇÐÄVlog home economist Fiona Mair.

Oat milk recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 4 cups water (1L)

Method

• Place oats and water into a blender jug and blend for about 35 seconds.Ìý
• Lay a cloth such as a new Chux over a fine sieve sitting in a bowl or jug, pour in the blended liquid and allow to drip through until liquid flow slows.Ìý
• Picking up all corners of the cloth and securing the contents, gently squeeze by hand to extract the remaining liquid.
• Cover the bowl or jug and chill before serving.

Makes: 800mL (approx.)

Tips

• For best results use a high-performance blender.
• Don’t blend for more than 40 seconds as the liquid will become slimy (too much starch is released, which results in a gummy, gluey texture).
• For additional sweetness and flavour include two pitted dates and/or one teaspoon of vanilla extract before processing.
• Keep refrigerated and shake before serving.Ìý
• Use within 2–3 days. You can tell it’s past its use-by date when it smells sour and becomes slimy.
• Use leftover oat pulp in biscuits, cakes or muffins.

Cheapest oat milk

Assuming you use supermarket-brand rolled oats – and that you already have a high-performance blender, a fine sieve and a stockpile of new Chux cloths at home – our homemade oat milk costs about 20 cents a litre to make (potentially less if you buy your oats in bulk from wholefood stores).

This is significantly cheaper than the $2.80–$2.90 a litre it costs to buy popular oat milk brands Pureharvest and Vitasoy.

But before you ditch store-bought for homemade, there are a few points you might want to consider.Ìý

• If you use other brands or organic versions of oats, your homemade oat milk will cost more (although still not as much as store-bought).
• Arguably commercial products are more convenient, many with a long best-before date, so you can buy in bulk and store for later use.
• Many store-bought options are fortified with calcium, so can be a better option – particularly if you’re using oat milk as a cow’s milk replacement rather than an occasional alternative.

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