It could be the taste of salted vs unsalted butter - if you’re used to it one way, the other way will taste off to you.
-needscoffee, who has made literally thousands of shortbread cookies and has the carpal tunnel repairs to to show for it
I’m not worried about the safety, and i like the addition of carrageenan, even look for it, when I’m making whipped cream. But i wonder if it wouldn’t make it a bit “off” if the goal were butter.
Yep. For @SciFiSam to get a full picture, I found a website that has a list of heavy creams and which are additive free:
Organic Valley is the only brand I’ve heard of in the “plain ol’ cream” list.
Dean’s brand is probably the most popular (?) and has some mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 80, and carageenan added to it. I’ve used Dean’s for butter, and it works fine. I’ve personally never found the additives to be problematic for butter making. But, yes, it annoys how difficult it is to just get plain ol’ cream.
Sour cream is similarly often peppered with these thickeners and stabilizers, but that one seems to be easier to find made from unadulterated cultured cream. My Daisy brand sour cream only lists that as an ingredient; Deans regular sour cream has loads of stuff, at least according to the ingredient list at instacart (Whey Protein Concentrate, Food Starch - Modified, Sodium Phosphate, Maltodextrin, Cultured Dextrose, Sodium Citrate, Gellan Gum, Carrageenan, Guar Gum, Calcium Sulfate, Locust Bean Gum, Potassium Sorbate (to Preserve Freshness). But I think they also have an “all natural” version that does not come with all the extras.
I got curious so I pulled our carton of cream out of the fridge. It just says: “Ingredients: Milk, Cream”. No mention of any additives.
I think that list must be regional. The only brand on that list that’s available out here is Organic Valley. And none of the brands of milk I buy are on it.
But the other thing to look for if you want to make butter is the % fat. I don’t know how much it varies in general, but one of the local brands of heavy cream has about 50% more butterfat than the other two brands in my supermarket. I have to assume it would be easier to make into butter, and yield more butter per batch.
(The richer brand makes awesome whipped cream if you want a dollop of cream on the side, but if I am making a whipped-cream-heavy dish, like a pie that incorporates whipped cream, I actually prefer the ones with a lower butterfat content. It makes the resulting dish a little lighter, and easier to eat a whole slice of the pie. And the stabilizers do their job.)
checked our milk carton as well. It just says “Partly skimmed milk, Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D”. No seaweeed.
The seaweed is just in whipping cream – it makes it easier to whip. I don’t think anyone adds it to milk intended to just drink.
You know what – now that I’m looking online at various Dean’s brand heavy cream products, most of the ones I’m finding just have plain ol’ cream listed as an ingredient, with nothing else. I’m going to have to check the store when I get a chance in the next couple of days. I wonder if they’ve changed, or if they have different product lines, but what I’ve been looking at is plain ol’ Deans whipping and heavy whipping cream and I’m not seeing the thickeners and stabilizers.
Heresy!
Shortbread is butter, sugar and flour. That’s it.
Needs salt. Worth trying vanilla and lemon. But they seem to sell a hundred flavours of Triscuits - but none are better than the original. So you have a point. But if you’ve never it with Reese’s, who can say? It’s off the charts delicious.
not even a few lavender blossoms? I’m going to cry…
I know a pastry chef who recommended adding a few tablespoons of custard powder to shortbread. She said it made it taste “luxurious”.
What is “custard powder”?
An instant pudding mix in American English
That is one of my cookie secrets. Add one packet of vanilla instant Jello pudding.
Custard powder? Something to trifle with.
No, it certainly doesn’t. It takes two quarts of heavy cream (64 ounces go for $11.98 if you buy the cheapest brand), and a pound of butter can be had for $3.99.
Not really pudding; more of a sauce to ladle over apple dumplings and such. 
I hate you.
I’m going to have to go to the Irish goods store to get some.
I’m just a sweet kinda guy. 