Toast all year, but especially in these colder months when warm fresh bread, a knob of butter schmeared “wall to wall” and a spoon of preserves is just the ticket. We connected with Marisa Mauro of Ploughgate Creamery to talk (cultured) butter and toast.

Marisa standing at the end of a table with rows of balls of butter. She's wrapping on in brown paper and smiling. — *Marisa Mauro, founder of Ploughgate Creamery. Photo by Lily Landes.*

My two months at the Vergennes Laundry bakery in 2015 turned out to be my last restaurant cooking job. I did little stove-cooking at Vergennes Laundry but picked up important back-pocket sauces & recipes I make regularly like the mignonette, sherry vinegar laced gazpacho. And through the various tartines and baguettes we served, I learned to think deeply about the texture of vegetables and specifically how they interact with bread and shmears of fat like chèvre, aioli and butter. At VL, the ingredients were beautiful. They baked with Vermont Creamery 85% cultured butter. Like at my other restaurant jobs, I was often hungry and like I’ve been doing since I was a small child, I ate spoons (and occasionally finger swipes) of butter like it was cheese.

As it turned out, butter was cheese at VL. It’s 2023 now. We’ve lived through the butter boards of 2022, but in 2015, my butter-eating habits were something I hid. While I ate teaspoons of baking butter at VL, on the cheeseboard we served Ploughgate Cultured Butter alongside Consider Bardwell’s Rubert and a smattering of other Vermont cheeses. I’ll never forget when VL’s co-owner, Julianne, explained what butters belonged in which applications. Ploughgate, she said, was what she ate at home and it’s what made sense for the cheese board. Dang! I thought, I’ve got to try this wonder-butter! - V Smiley

V Smiley Preserves: What were you doing before you founded Ploughgate? What brought you to butter?

Marisa Mauro: Ploughgate and I have really grown up together! I started dreaming up the first version of it when I was 21 and it came to fruition when I was 22. But I was always drawn to the land and animals. My Dad and I raised all sorts of animals at my childhood home in Dorset, VT. Geese, ducks, retired and green (no training) horses, I even started a rabbit breeding business that got out of control and I went door to door selling baby rabbits! Then I got my first job at Woodcock Farm in Weston, VT in high school. They were a sheep dairy producing artisanal cheeses. Through that job, I started to learn about processing dairy. I fell in love with the dairy industry, the people, the land, the animals, and the hard work. I saw that if I wanted a career in it I would need to add value to the milk. This has really been my life's work! Since that first job, I have never really strayed from farming and dairy production. After Woodcock Farm, I went on to work for Shelburne Farms during my senior year of high school. I was terrible at school and convinced the headmaster to let me finish out my final semester living in Burlington and making cheese at Shelburne. I then jumped in my pick up and traveled across the country working on a cattle ranch in Montana and settling on a goat dairy in Northern California where I lived and worked for three years. And on and on :)

I love that butter is a staple. It is timeless, should be used every day, and truly makes people happy!

VSP: For those who aren't familiar, cultured butter...what's it all about?

MM: Cultured butter is tangier and richer than your everyday stick butter, with a taste reminiscent of cheese. That’s because cultured butter and cheese share a critical first step—the addition of beneficial bacteria (the ‘culture’ in cultured butter). This beneficial bacteria gives it a more complex flavor profile enhancing the flavor, aroma, and texture.

To begin the butter-making process, we add active cultures to the cream and let it sit for 24 hours. This imparts complexity to the aroma, flavor, and texture of the finished product. After twenty-four hours it’s time to churn. Gratefully the days of hand churning are long gone, and our small batch churn does the work of separating the yellow butterfat from the frothy buttermilk. A drain on the underbelly of the churn releases the buttermilk into a five-gallon bucket. Finally, we fold in coarse sea salt by hand before wrapping the butter into tidy half and one-pound packages. The end result is nutty, grassy, and sweet – simply divine.

VSP: What has gotten easier—and maybe what has gotten harder—in the past decade when marketing Ploughgate?

MM: I guess it has gotten easier for me to trust my instincts when it comes to offerings from Ploughgate. I think ten years ago I was more self-conscious. Now I just love to create what makes me thrive and taste delicious and trust that other people will enjoy it!

VSP: What are some of the benefits of being in Vermont?

MM: I love being a small business owner in Vermont. The state provides great resources and assistance that allow businesses to thrive and survive. I also feel lucky to live in a state with delicious food and wildly creative and innovative folks.

VSP: Did the pandemic require any pivoting for Ploughgate?

MM: We started an e-commerce business as a result of the pandemic. We were able to pivot restaurant sales to this revenue stream. It also allowed my staff and me a way to connect to each other and the outside world. We curated bundles collaborating with other artisans and producers inspired by our love of food and past travels.

*A toast spread with VSP jams and Ploughgate butter. Photo by Lauren Mazzotta.*

VSP: What is your recipe for toast?

MM: It is all about the double butter! Slather butter onto warm bread and once melted, slather again. Toasted is a must. Elmore Mountain bread slays me. Sometimes toast calls for more salt—coarse or flake. VSP Raspberry Jam is my all-time favorite. And Montmorency Cherry September Plum Jam has been my go-to since we included it on the Ploughgate Butter Board that we offered on our website. I love how the tart jam, sweetened with honey, compliments the fatty and salty mouthfeel of butter. If Montmorency Cherry isn’t in season, I reach for Raspberry.

VSP: What were your feelings about the butter board craze of 2022?

MM: I think the butter board craze was before Thanksgiving. But my Butter Board offering on the website that I launched last year has a very different feel [than the TikTok trend]. It is essentially a cheese board but with butter! I focused on female producers like V Smily Preserves and also included Babette’s Table sausage and Rabble-Rouser chocolate. We only offer it around the holiday season.

VSP: An unexpected way to use butter that you wish more folks knew about?

MM: I love compound butters on meat! Like Porcini butter on a steak. I also love finishing roasted vegetables or grains with a bit of butter after cooking. And the Seaweed butter is my favorite for finishing grains.