Both butters are stone-milled from organic sunflower seeds farmed in Europe, and both have 18g of protein per 100g. The difference is whether the seeds are heated, and that one step changes how each butter tastes and where it works best in the kitchen.
Raw
The raw butter is stone-milled without heating the seeds, to keep the full flavour of the seed. It is mild and fresh, which suits savoury cooking and soups. It makes a gentle, nutty background for lemon, garlic, miso, chilli or herbs.
Toasted
The toasted butter is stone-milled and gently roasted, for a full, rounded flavour and super smoothness. It is nice on toast, in porridge and in baking, where a deeper, more cooked flavour is welcome.
What heat does to a seed
Food-engineering research on nuts and oilseeds describes roasting as the step that gives them their desirable aroma, colour and texture. The Maillard reaction is part of that: a set of chemical changes between amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and sugars that happen when food is heated.
A 2022 Turkish thesis by Dilara Şen measured what happens when five seeds and nuts, sunflower seed among them, are roasted at different temperatures and times. As heat and time increased, sugars such as sucrose, glucose and fructose declined, and some of the free amino acids were lost too, as you would expect if the two were reacting together. The more heat you apply, the further those reactions run. How far to take them is the roaster's judgement, and ours is described as "gently roasted".
Why sunflower seeds suit butter
The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) was domesticated in North America roughly 4,500 to 5,000 years ago and reached Europe in the early 16th century. Breeders later split it into two broad kinds: oilseed types with small black seeds, and confectionery types with larger black-and-white seeds whose kernels separate easily from the shell. The Encyclopaedia Britannica lists the ways the kernels are eaten: dried, roasted, or ground into butter. So both of our jars follow an old path: the same seed, with or without the oven.
Nutrition
The labels are the same: 2662kJ / 644kcal, fat 57g, carbohydrate 9.1g, protein 18g per 100g. To read them: fat supplies most of the energy, because the NHS gives fat as 9kcal a gram against 4kcal for protein or carbohydrate.
A tasting you can do at home
The quickest way to understand the difference is to taste them side by side.
- Stir each jar well first. Natural seed butters can separate, and the oil at the top will taste different from the paste underneath if you do not mix it in.
- Taste a small spoonful of each on its own. Expect the toasted one to smell more roasted and the raw one to smell fresher and milder.
- Then try each on plain toast, and each stirred into a bowl of warm soup. See which one you would rather have in each.
Ideas for each jar
With the raw butter, try whisking a spoonful with lemon juice and water into a creamy dressing for grated carrot or roasted vegetables. You can also stir it into a pan of soup near the end of cooking so it thickens the broth slightly, or loosen it with a little warm water to drizzle over grain bowls.
With the toasted butter, swirl a spoonful into hot porridge, spread it thickly on toast with sliced banana, or use it in cookies and energy balls.
Which to pick
- Soups, dressings, savoury dishes: raw.
- Toast, oats, cookies: toasted.
If you only want one jar, ask what you will use it for most. For breakfast and baking, the toasted butter gives the rounder flavour. For cooking dinner, the raw one stays out of the way. If you bake with either, a harmless surprise is possible: sunflower butter can turn bakes greenish when used with baking soda. America's Test Kitchen's science editor traced this to chlorophyll released by the alkaline conditions and found the bakes safe and unchanged in taste.
Sources
- Şen (2022): Chemical changes occurring in nuts and oilseed varieties during roasting
- Reluctant Gourmet: What is the Maillard reaction?
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Sunflower
- The Conversation: Making sunlight liquid, a brief history of sunflowers
- University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension: Sunflowers
- NHS: Types of fat
- America's Test Kitchen: Does sunflower butter turn cookies green?
