Winter in Egypt, 2024 - Buying Butter

Buying butter for baking here in Cairo is not as simple as heading over to Jerry's market and picking up some Land O' Lakes butter from the cooler. 

There is a local brand of packaged butter, Almarai, that we buy sometimes. It's available in some of the nearby convenience stores.

 

But for eating we really prefer Danish Lurpak.  It's known as one of the best butters in the world.  Linda says it's close to Kerry Gold Irish butter, the brand we choose in the U.S.

Since that is not available in most small shops - and when it is available, might be found only in small quantities, we needed to find another butter source. In the past,we have bought New Zealand butter at our nearby Ragab Sons supermarket. Sadly, Ragab Sons in our neighborhood has closed; in fact, all 65 locations of Ragab Sons have not only closed but disappeared without a trace - at least in the local English language media.  Their website remains the only sign that there ever was such a supermarket chain with 8,000 employees.  We have heard that there may be an auction of their assets this year.  Stay tuned!

For baking we need to find butter in quantities larger than 200g or 400 g. We've discovered that all products labeled "butter" are not butter.  There are many such products in different brands that turn out to be some sort of margarine-like product. Their ingredients are such that no body should ingest them and we feel sorry for all the Egyptians who purchase them. They seem to be very popular here. So we tried several of the small markets in the neighborhood, seeking real butter but without any luck.  Finally, next door to our favorite bakery, we had success at Nour market.

 

There we found genuine local butter in a convenient 1 kilogram ball.  The attendant in the deli section assured us that it was cow's butter and we bought a kilo for 400 EGP - about ten dollars.  

Linda cut the ball in half and measured it at a bit over five inches in diameter.  It's perfect for baking and besides it's fun to buy a "ball of butter", something we cannot do in Minnesota.

  

Several days later we also purchased butter at Spinney's supermarket about two miles away, where we do our weekly shopping.  Their butter was also 400 EGP per kilogram, about $4.50 per pound, but came in a more familiar shape.  In their deli section they cut off the amount you want from a very large bulk round.