Where's the butter?!?

[Russell]

OK, this lasts already a couple of months, but whatever shop I go, most butter (that is butter, not margarine) is sold out all the time.

Asked the shop tenant today why that is and she said that the number of producers is decreasing. I understand that those Ojisan need to retire at some age, but hey, how about importing the stuff?

She looked at me with big eyes when I suggested that, and this was a shop selling import food, so I must have said something crazy.

Same shortages anywhere else in Japan, or is this a Hyogo-only problem?

[dimwit]

All the butter is being used to make 3-D TVs. Haven't you heard?

[yanpa]

It must be 2008 all over again.

[Mike Oxlong]

The bulk food stores here limit customers to two one-pound packs of butter per purchase. Assuming they're in stock, which often they are not.

[wagyl]

Butter also at phantom status here, at a location where supplies come from Kanto and Kansai so usually immune from regional issues. Cream and salt are still available, maybe time for those who want butter to get churning themselves.

Searching バター不足 brings up Japanese news stories, a quick skim before you come up against the paywalls says hot summer, milk production down, more dairy farms abandoned, urgent consideration of imports.

Come to think of it, yoghurt seems to be more limited than usual (the only dairy I use is predigested).

[Doctor Stop]

There was something on the news about butter prices going up this month, and if so I suspect that any recent shortages could be because of butter hoarders.

[kurogane]

Couldn't find nary a proper milk product on the Chiba coast the past couple of weeks but I thought I was having a Debito attack. For those who care, it turns out Sakeru Cheese contains no cellulose. It's still crap but at least it isn't tree fibre.

Good work, Russell. Keep 'em honest

[wagyl]

There was something on the news about butter prices going up this month, and if so I suspect that any recent shortages could be because of butter hoarders.

... or maybe even the workings of market forces of supply and demand. The world isn't always sinister, and the markets are not always manipulated to the extent suspected.

[matsuki]

I haven't noticed a change recently but yeah, often times the only shit left is margarine...fuck that stuff

[Yokohammer]

This piqued my interest a bit, so I did the unthinkable: I looked it up.

Word is that the unusually hot summer last year resulted in a drop in milk production. I guess cows don't like to produce milk when they're hot.

Anyway, it's just a temporary situation and the butter will be back, sooner or later.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[matsuki]

Damn...and I was just about to start importing electric butter churns...

[wagyl]

Damn...and I was just about to start importing electric butter churns...

Gee, I wonder what we all did in the days before electricity.

The fact that we all churned butter by hand in a very suburban primary school shows that even a citified 10 year old can do it. With freaking eggbeaters.

[IparryU]

There was something on the news about butter prices going up this month, and if so I suspect that any recent shortages could be because of butter hoarders.

Skip to 2:02:12 for the bit I am refering to.


or: http://youtu.be/uhIRGGh_Iu0?t=2h2m12s

cant add the ?t=2h2m12s in youtube code ;'(

[matsuki]

Damn...and I was just about to start importing electric butter churns...

Gee, I wonder what we all did in the days before electricity.

The fact that we all churned butter by hand in a very suburban primary school shows that even a citified 10 year old can do it. With freaking eggbeaters.

I'd say you're dating yourself but then again, I'm not exactly sure that lesson was phased out in Australian primary schools.

[kurogane]

Is that Joe Rogan guy on the left of that picture above the same guy that was the delightfully dopey electrician on News Radio!!?????

Man, he looks different.............

BTW, I just left a few pats of butter from one of those little 8 packet Yuki-jirushi packs in the guesthouse fridge. Hayamon-gachi ya de!


and now I am off to the wilds of Haneda to explore the comforts of the ANA Lounge. From the website it looks like they offer slices of real cheese, which will be a nice break from that gummy Sakeru Cheezu crap I have been scarfing. I will report on the butter situation as known.

You all play safe now, see you in a couple of weeks.

[IparryU]

Is that Joe Rogan guy on the left of that picture above the same guy that was the delightfully dopey electrician on News Radio!!?????

Man, he looks different.............

BTW, I just left a few pats of butter from one of those little 8 packet Yuki-jirushi packs in the guesthouse fridge. Hayamon-gachi ya de!


and now I am off to the wilds of Haneda to explore the comforts of the ANA Lounge. From the website it looks like they offer slices of real cheese, which will be a nice break from that gummy Sakeru Cheezu crap I have been scarfing. I will report on the butter situation as known.

You all play safe now, see you in a couple of weeks.

Yup that is Joe from News Radio. Not sure if you keep up with MMA... but he is the color commentator for the UFC. I love his podcasts, he goes off on a tangent a lot (I say it is the weed...) but he is funny as hell.

Play safe? NeVar!

[Russell]

Damn...and I was just about to start importing electric butter churns...

Gee, I wonder what we all did in the days before electricity.

The fact that we all churned butter by hand in a very suburban primary school shows that even a citified 10 year old can do it. With freaking eggbeaters.

Where do you buy the milk?

I have been told you cannot buy milk directly from the farmer, because of hygiene regulations, and the milk in shops does not contain enough fat to make cheese. I suppose the same applies to making butter.

[wagyl]

Where do you buy the milk?

I have been told you cannot buy milk directly from the farmer, because of hygiene regulations, and the milk in shops does not contain enough fat to make cheese. I suppose the same applies to making butter.

The Dutchman knows little about cheese! Yes it is possible to make cheese from milk sold in cartons, but to make really nice cheese it is preferable to use unpasteurised and unhomogenised milk. This preference for raw milk is more to do with microbial flora and fat distribution/suspension than fat content, by the way. Butter requires cream, which strangely enough appears to be available in the same, costly, quantities it always has been.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairy_prod ... cts_v2.svg


Edited to add:
All this cheese talk got me thinking about a Brazilian guy who made fresh cheese in Toyama. I hadn't seen it in any of the Brazilian shops lately, and now I see why: he has moved to Oizumi, Gunma, and it is thus no longer "Toyama Cheese." If you are a fan of South American style fresh cheeses (kind of like a halloumi), he also sells it, and other products, at the weekend Farmer's Market opposite Aoyama Gakuin in Shibuya/Omotesando. http://vilmilk.jp/cart/cms.php?id_cms=16

[matsuki]

Damn...and I was just about to start importing electric butter churns...

Gee, I wonder what we all did in the days before electricity.

The fact that we all churned butter by hand in a very suburban primary school shows that even a citified 10 year old can do it. With freaking eggbeaters.

Where do you buy the milk?

I have been told you cannot buy milk directly from the farmer, because of hygiene regulations, and the milk in shops does not contain enough fat to make cheese. I suppose the same applies to making butter.

Why buy milk when you can buy....

screen-shot-2014-09-29-at-11-54-20[1].jpeg

errr, wait, wrong bovine...

607271-cow[1].jpg

[Mike Oxlong]

Doh! Local bulk grocery vendor was out today. Time to go to some of the more distant ones...

[Doctor Stop]

... or maybe even the workings of market forces of supply and demand. The world isn't always sinister, and the markets are not always manipulated to the extent suspected.

I've seen it back in the stores again recently, but up to around a week ago there were a lot of signs up explaining the shortage.

I still think that a lot of people, especially crazy old people, bought butter in bulk, even though they may not actually even eat it and that contributed somewhat to the temporary shortage.

[Doctor Stop]

Skip to 2:02:12 for the bit I am refering to.

If it worked, it would make one think what margarine would do.

[yanpa]

... or maybe even the workings of market forces of supply and demand. The world isn't always sinister, and the markets are not always manipulated to the extent suspected.

I've seen it back in the stores again recently, but up to around a week ago there were a lot of signs up explaining the shortage.

I still think that a lot of people, especially crazy old people, bought butter in bulk, even though they may not actually even eat it and that contributed somewhat to the temporary shortage.

Butter is the new toilet paper. Maybe I should keep a case in the loft for emergencies?

[Doctor Stop]

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/info ... powder.htm

[wagyl]

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/butter_powder.htm

USD 11.22 for 400 grams? Sign me up! Especially as I doubt that the reconstituted powder is better than margarine for those who care about those differences. If you absolutely require butter, 200ml of 35% fat cream was about 330 yen throughout this butter shortage, and was hanging around on the supermarket shelf long enough to be reduced to half price with approaching use by dates.

[Doctor Stop]

USD 11.22 for 400 grams? Sign me up!

No Y2K bunker would be legit without a few cases.

If you absolutely require butter, 200ml of 35% fat cream was about 330 yen throughout this butter shortage, and was hanging around on the supermarket shelf long enough to be reduced to half price with approaching use by dates.

That's one thing that suggested to me that irregular consumption patterns at least partially to blame. No other dairy products were in short supply, at least at the shops where I shop at in Tokyo.

[Mike Oxlong]

Locally whole milk has been in shorter supply the last month or so.

[wagyl]

I think you can safely say that Okinawa is a separate market for milk. You still have cartons based on the US pint size, right? (which I have always assumed was part of the demands of US military procurement: "We'll not buy milk in infernal litres! These inscrutable orientals will cheat us on quantities!" and the local market has just gone with the same carton sizes because having two carton size ranges would just be too inconvenient.)

Yep, confirmed. http://www.okinawa-meiji.co.jp/main_items/nyu-seihin/

[Mike Oxlong]

Yeah, we do. The way I heard it production facilities were set up for quarts under US administration, and they didn't bother to upgrade after reversion.

[wagyl]

I would believe that if cartons predated reversion, but I would be very surprised if milk was sold in cardboard not bottles back in 1972.

Edit 1
Well fuck me sideways and call me skippy! The milk carton was patented in 1915! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carton#Packaging_history The question now is what packaging was used by the dairy industry in the Ryukyu Islands.

Edit 2
Whoa! Having dipped a toe into the dark mysterious world of the Japanese Milk Bottle Otaku, I don't think I will do any more research.