My father has always been into butter, something that I picked up from him. For Vietnamese people of Bo Gia’s generation, the benchmark brand of butter came in a stout red can with gold lettering. Buerre Bretel (bơ Bretel, “buh Bruh-tell”) was highly prized for its super rich, umami-laden flavor. In a tropical country where water buffaloes far outnumbered dairy cows, the imported French butter was considered an expensive, luxury food.
If you could afford the dense, egg yolk yellow salted spread, you were living large. For villagers who may not have ever tasted the butter, the empty cans were recycled for measuring even portions of rice, according to historian Erica Peters in Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam.
After we resettled in California, my dad tried different kinds of American butter but when he and my mom could get a rare can of Bretel butter at a Vietnamese market, it was an extra treat. We’d smear it on baguette to eat as is or add pate or slices of Vietnamese silky sausage (gio lua) and lots of black pepper. We'd mix a pat into hot rice or egg noodles and let it melt to perfume and flavor everything. (Sometimes I’d sprinkle on some Maggi Seasoning sauce too). The butter expressed high-end, high-class eating.
Or so I thought. When my husband and I first started dating, I let him try a Bretel knockoff called Frentel (it was all I found at a Viet market at the time, and cost roughly $3.50 for a 250g can). He thought it tasted rancid and mistrusted the yellow color.
You’ve got to be kidding, he said. The French fooled you with this dreck. They had no other options for butter that could travel well. Colonialism was not a good thing.
He was right about the colonialism and I didn’t buy another can of French butter until this year. Working on the banh mi book got me thinking about revisiting certain French imported goods. At a book event and online, a couple of Viet-Americans reminded me of their family penchant for the beurre from France. Does canned butter taste as good to me now as it did in the 1970s?
I found the butter at Green Farm Market, a Viet grocer in Fountain Valley (Little Saigon in Orange County, CA). Frentel cost about $6 and Bretel was about $8. I also purchased imported canned pate since it was displayed alongside the butter.
At home, I looked up the history of Bretel and found out that Eugène Auguste Emile Bretel (1842-1933) was a famous butter producer in Normandy, France – a place renowned for its dairy products. He and his brother operated Maison Bretel Frères to produce butter in their northwestern city of Port-bail and elsewhere in the region; Isigny is an area particularly well known for its dairy products, hence the wording below. Their company changed hands several times over the years.
Nowadays, according to one American importer, Bretel and Beurdell are made by the same manufacturer in France. Out of curiosity, I Googlemapped the address on the Bretel can (30 Rue De La Montagne Ste Genevieve 75005 Paris) and saw Sushirama restaurant. They may just be the distributor . . .
I tried the two kinds of butter on baguette. The Frentel was crazy yellow and not particularly nuanced or super buttery as I expected; it was actually weird and waxy tasting, reminding me of latex paint.
The Bretel was lighter in color and texturally softer than I remembered but delicious tasting. Why the different taste in French butter? Perhaps because French butter often has slightly less water than its American kin and is produced from cultured cream. The breed of cows and what the cows feed on (grasses vs. grain, for example) impacts the cream used in production. Some say the sea salt used to flavor the butter effects the overall flavor as well.
Then I made this old-school banh mi with one of my homemade rolls:
It’s a simple banh mi, probably the first that ever made for myself as a kid. My mom would set out bread, butter, pate, and pepper, and let me go to town; I added cilantro for a pop of flavor. She made her own liver pate but my dad would also buy various kinds of canned French pate from the Akron (a precursor to Cost Plus World Market).
The canned butter-and-pate banh mi was more nostalgic than great tasting. The pate was not great canned pate, not the kind that my friends Maki and Christophe bring back from France. The butter, though, was good. My husband deemed the Bretel to be alright, if not quite good.
I decided to make banh mi – a dac biet and a roast chicken, subbing the butter for mayonnaise and going light on the vegetables and sprinkling in lots of black pepper instead of chiles. Splendid. A few banh mi makers use butter or margarine instead of mayonnaise so keep that in your back pocket as you experiment.
Should you hunt down canned butters? They are sold at hardcore Vietnamese markets and delis/bakeries so you’ll have to venture into a Viet ‘hood for them. They are easy to spot because of the unusual packaging. Bretel and Buerdell are sold on Amazon but you have to invest in quite a few, which could make you very popular with your friends this holiday season. Gift them a bottle of Maggi Seasoning sauce and can of French butter.
Or, go out and source really good butter. I gravitate toward butter made from grass-fed cows and right now, am enjoying Somerdale English butter. Trader Joe’s organic butter is nice for cooking. I bet butter from Isigny, France, is quite good too and comes close to Bretel butter. If there’s a local raw milk source near you, they may produce delicious butter. A little good butter goes a long way because there’s a big flavor payoff. It’s a nice splurge.
I've seen Dutch canned butter in the Indonesian section at Asian markets, and read about Australian Red Feather canned butter. Anyone tried those or others? Or, if you have experience with Bretel, Buerdell or Frentel, please share!
Nghi says
Hello, Do you happen to know if this butter needs to be refrigerated? It would be so hard to spread on bread if it does...
Andrea Nguyen says
Because of its cost, I refrigerate it and bring it to room temperature to use spread it. I totally know what you mean. It's rock hard.
Grace Tran says
Thank you for this piece. I'm sitting here on a snowy morning in Chicago, eating oatmeal with a pat of Bretel, honey, and cinnamon, and I got curious about this butter! Also a staple of my childhood, I grew up with my mother treating it like gold.
Andrea Nguyen says
Oh my, we're butter heads. Bretel is ironically gold colored like gold. It's amazing stuff.
Gioga says
QUOTE: "Bretel used to be darker yellow but not as dark as the Frentel!"
Lighter color is more fresh than darker
Do you want darker ?: Heat the lighter (American) butter for for 1 minutes, let it cool down and here is darker yellow smell good too
Butter is butter no more no less
Andrea Nguyen says
The color thing isn't a value judgement as much as an observation. The color difference depends on the season, what the cows eat, how they're raised. Per Organic Valley and the New York Times:
http://organicvalley.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/59/~/why-is-organic-valley-butter-so-yellow%3F
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/since-milk-is-white-why-is-butter-yellow/
Tom Vo says
I also grew up with Bretel butter. It’s hard to find. I’m visiting Paris and reminiscing about French butter. Maybe using a butter container will allow you to keep the butter at room temperature for use without going bad quickly.
Andrea Nguyen says
Hope you eat lots of extra good French butter on your trip! Thanks for writing from so far away!
Duc Tran says
Before 1975, a Cafeteria in Saigon used to pick a small amount of this butter into the hot coffee/ or hot coffee with condensed milk. This beverage became the best seller at that time for its flavour and also taste.
We are the third generation of that Cafteria and we will bring it back for the updated menu.
Thank Gods that we found more info and inspiration here from you.
Hope that one day we can invite you our cup of coffee which have a beautiful yellow thin layer of butter Bretel on top.
Andrea Nguyen says
Hello Duc, Are based in Saigon/HCMC? I am so glad to meet you. If you are based in Vietnam, I do hope to come to your cafe some day. What a treat that would be.
Duc Tran says
https://www.facebook.com/cheoleocafe/photos/a.2189732351249942.1073741840.1717962135093635/2201766396713204/?type=3&theater
This is what we are trying to bring back the old signature.
Hope to see you at CHEO LEO Cafe.
Vinh says
My mom made garlic fried rice with Bretel butter and a splash of fish sauce.
Andrea Nguyen says
Perfect combination of flavors. Yowza.
Uyen Diem Phan says
Great read! I remember my mom repeatedly telling me how special this butter is when I was a child. As I got older and became a “foodie” I actually thought that butter was ghee because of yellow color. Not too long ago my mom visited me in Germany and we took a trip to Paris. She wondered if we could find that butter in Paris. I told her not to waste her time on that butter because it’s not butter. I guess I should call her and apologize. 🤦🏻♀️
Andrea Nguyen says
What a great story! Your mom could head to Trader Joe's and look for the butter from Brittany. It's really nice.
It's funny how much attachment we have to this stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Duy says
Andrea, I remember the red tins from my childhood. In my view, it is indispensable for the Vietnamese sandwiches as I knew it. One should not compare it to fresh dairy butter or use it for those purposes. It belongs more in the ghee or Moroccan preserved butter (i.e., cooked, clarified, and heavily salted) category. In a way, it is almost like cheese, because the preservation is what gives it a distinctive flavor. Climate probably plays a part too. Perhaps the wilting tropical heat made the butter more yellow (my recollection is same as yours), but it certainly made it more unctuous, spreadable, and decadent.
Now, if only someone could confirm another memory of mine: Were the sandwiches in Saigon made with soy sauce?! (Love your cookbooks!)
Andrea Nguyen says
My sense is that funk come of Bretel came from the cream being cultured and a fair amount of salt. Moroccan smen is fermented (a friend made some a while back according to Paula Wolfert's recipe). Climate likely impacted it too, as you point out.
The sandwiches in VN were made with Maggi. Nowadays they use "nuoc tuong" but it's a lighter version of Maggi, made by Nestle and labeled Maggi. In Vietnam, it's what many people now think of as soy sauce. They are not the same.
Song says
You are amazing. Great read! Thank you.
Andrea Nguyen says
Thanks for the compliment.
Myloan says
Hi Andrea, I think we have growing up in the same generation. Liver pate and Bretel. I just got back from 2 weeks Europe vacation and like othets I've hunted for Bretel while in Paris. To my disappointment, the Fremch did not know the exiting of Bretel. Bretel is export item only. Fracelia is what available. I bought some to try and liked more due to less butterry after taste.
Andrea Nguyen says
Hi My Loan -- Yes!!! How sad that the brand has disappeared. I see Frentel at some of the Vietnamese markets in America. There's something about that Bretel that's so darn good. At least we have our taste memories to savor it.
Quan Pham says
Like many expat folks throughout history, their memory and vocabulary are frozen in time which is explains many of the comments in this article. I, too, notice the difference in the Bretel as I eat some today, 4/19/2020, that I got from DaLat market in Garden Grove, CA a few weeks ago and keep it refrigerated. The difference for me is I, as well as many of you, got exposed to so many good butter products nowadays that Bretel did not knock my socks off. I was disappointed at the TJ’s butter made in Normandy. A dozen years ago I was exposed to Plugra when it was packaged in a red wrapper and was thoroughly impressed. Now, it’s in a silver wrapper and one can buy it at Albertsons and it’s not very flavorful. I’ve been using the Kelly Gold salted butter and am happy with it . I encourage those who are keen about butter to try artisanal butter that can be found at farmers markets from time to time. Thank you all. To good health.
Andrea Nguyen says
Quan -- I love your butter obsession! Kelly Gold is good for a well distributed butter. That TJ Normandy butter is no bueno now? How sad. I've also grown fond of Somerdale butter from the U.K. You're right about Plugra. It's sorta lost the oomph over the years. Oh well, onwards on the butter trail! Thanks for encouraging artisanal butter to boot.
Madison L. says
Hey, as I was reading, I heard you mention you found the butter in Orange Country. I'm actually from California myself and was able to find the butter pretty easily in OC. If you know where the Bahn Mi Che Cali is in Rosemead off of Valley, there is a bakery next door called Royal Bakery. if you go there they have the Bretel butter in the display case and also have amazing Banh bao.
Andrea Nguyen says
FANTASTIC tip, Madison! Thank you for the SGV intel. Love it.