Why is this butter so inexplicably cheap?

HaifongWangchuck · Post by **HaifongWangchuck** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 12:45 am

A lot of supermarkets in Siem Reap (e.g, AAA Supermarket, Asia Supermarket, etc.) will sell generic, unbranded butter at ~5USD/kg, which is extremely cheap compared to how much butter usually costs when you buy the imported French stuff.

I was extremely skeptical at first, but tbh...it doesn't taste bad at all, and actually akin to Anchor butter from New Zealand. A slight grassy aftertaste, very rich, yellow colour, and no signs of adulteration or mischief. I just baked some chocolate chip cookies with it, and it honestly came out really tasty.

What explains this? Is this local butter from Khmer farmers? Is this illegally obtained butter? It's never branded and always comes in generic grocery store plastic-wrap:

Ghostwriter · Post by **Ghostwriter** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 3:28 am

The legend says it's made of breast milk leftovers, collected from a string of maternities, resold in bulk to a dairy transformer who makes affordable butter and pizza cheese for Siem Reap top gourmets willing to support alternative & middlemen-free local business initiatives.

Spoiler:

stevenjb · Post by **stevenjb** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 5:37 am

OT, is Ghee (clarified butter) sold in Cambodia?

Element6 · Post by **Element6** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 5:55 am

stevenjb wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 5:37 am OT, is Ghee (clarified butter) sold in Cambodia?

You can get it at various Indian marts in Phnom Penh. Not sure about other cities

Post by **Username Taken** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 6:38 am

HaifongWangchuck wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 12:45 am

A lot of supermarkets in Siem Reap (e.g, AAA Supermarket, Asia Supermarket, etc.) will sell generic, unbranded butter at ~5USD/kg, which is extremely cheap compared to how much butter usually costs when you buy the imported French stuff.

I was extremely skeptical at first, but tbh...it doesn't taste bad at all, and actually akin to Anchor butter from New Zealand. A slight grassy aftertaste, very rich, yellow colour, and no signs of adulteration or mischief. I just baked some chocolate chip cookies with it, and it honestly came out really tasty.

What explains this? Is this local butter from Khmer farmers? Is this illegally obtained butter? It's never branded and always comes in generic grocery store plastic-wrap:

It's possibly the home-made 'butter' that they nam pang sellers make and use.
I could be wrong, but I think it's made from hand-whipped cooking oil with egg yolks.

Jerry Atrick · Post by **Jerry Atrick** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 7:48 am

stevenjb wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 5:37 am OT, is Ghee (clarified butter) sold in Cambodia?

Yeah

Jerry Atrick · Post by **Jerry Atrick** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 7:50 am

HaifongWangchuck wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 12:45 am

A lot of supermarkets in Siem Reap (e.g, AAA Supermarket, Asia Supermarket, etc.) will sell generic, unbranded butter at ~5USD/kg, which is extremely cheap compared to how much butter usually costs when you buy the imported French stuff.

I was extremely skeptical at first, but tbh...it doesn't taste bad at all, and actually akin to Anchor butter from New Zealand. A slight grassy aftertaste, very rich, yellow colour, and no signs of adulteration or mischief. I just baked some chocolate chip cookies with it, and it honestly came out really tasty.

What explains this? Is this local butter from Khmer farmers? Is this illegally obtained butter? It's never branded and always comes in generic grocery store plastic-wrap:

I have seen this stuff marked as "Australian butter" in minimart. I presumed that "Australian butter" is code for Margarine

Kammekor · Post by **Kammekor** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 10:13 am

HaifongWangchuck wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 12:45 am

A lot of supermarkets in Siem Reap (e.g, AAA Supermarket, Asia Supermarket, etc.) will sell generic, unbranded butter at ~5USD/kg, which is extremely cheap compared to how much butter usually costs when you buy the imported French stuff.

I doubt it's real butter given the prices of milk.

It doesn't look as nice as a well packaged piece of butter as I know it too.... More like margarine which wasn't properly cooled all the time.

Spoiler:

HaifongWangchuck · Post by **HaifongWangchuck** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 10:29 am

Thing is, it tastes like real butter (even has a slightly grassy aftertaste), melts in one's hands like real butter, and makes really good cookies like real butter; if it was eggs whipped with oil, it wouldn't work in recipes and if it was margarine, it would taste like margarine and melt like margarine (especially considering that palm oil and soybean oil, the two most likely replacement oils, don't melt like butter do), but it's almost certainly real butter, I just don't know where from or of what origin.

HaifongWangchuck · Post by **HaifongWangchuck** » Sat Oct 07, 2023 10:37 am

According to Selina Wamucii (a Kenyan agricultural collective that works with farmers in the 3rd world and also does analytics), the price is well in line with the wholesale price of generic butter in Cambodia:

The retail price range for Cambodia butter in October is between US$ 5.31 and US$ 9.8 per kilogram or between US$ 2.41 and US$ 4.44 per pound(lb).

So I have no doubt that it's real butter, as that's well within the price range of bulk, generic butter. Perhaps it's made from butterfat leftover from the yogurt industry? Imported from India (it does taste somewhat like Amul now that I think of it)?

Why is this butter so inexplicably cheap?

Why is this butter so inexplicably cheap?

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Re: Why is this butter so inexplicably cheap?

Re: Why is this butter so inexplicably cheap?

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