News
Pride Dairy creates unique butter tastes
Scott Wagar
02/05/2013
Pride Dairy has two new products which were created locally and are considered to be the only manufactured goods of its kind made throughout the state of North Dakota.
The new products are Honey Butter and Cinnamon Honey Butter.
“Lori Kittleson and I were making lefsa this past fall when Lori said that her mom always used to make honey butter,” said Shelly Spang, Pride Dairy employee and the creator of Pride’s Honey Butter and Cinnamon Honey Butter. “Lori hadn’t had for a long time. So, I put it in the back of my mind that I would make it for her for Christmas. When I was making it up for her during the Christmas season I thought to myself we could sell this at Pride Dairy because we have the butter and we have the honey. The rest is history.”
Spang took her idea to Jeff Beyer, owner of Pride Dairy, who thought it was a great idea.
“We make the butter here and purchase honey from the United Honey Bee Incorporation in Westhope,” Beyer said. “To me, it seemed like a really good idea because they are local products from right here in the area, and I’ve often heard people make claims that there’s better health benefits in selling and using honey that is from your own region for the local folks in the area who will be eating it.”
Pride Dairy purchases the honey raw from Westhope and then heat treats it, strains it, blends the butter and honey together and places it into containers.
When Spang started blending Pride’s butter with the honey, she was told by Kittleson that there was a 50/50 ratio blend with the butter and honey.
However, Spang discovered a problem and had to continue blending the butter and honey until she came up with a solution, which has now become a secret recipe at Pride Dairy to protect their product.
“The first time we did it, all you could taste was the honey. Then it tasted to much like butter,” Beyer said. “But, Shelly kept working at it until she got to the point where the taste was perfect.
“With the Cinnamon Honey Butter, Shelly pulled her magic again and came up with the right taste for the product,” Beyer added.
After the first week of production, the Honey Butter and Cinnamon Honey Butter sold out within days.
However, Pride Dairy was busy late last week in making more of the two products to butter up the taste buds of their customers, which is currently on the shelves at Pride Dairy.