ButterBall Farms Inc.

3 Ways to Make Menu Innovation Easier

Doing more with less skilled staff in the kitchen is just one of the challenges facing menu developers. Creating menu items requiring less prep that doesn’t compromise quality and flavor is the solution. With more than a half-century of innovation, Butterball® Farms is a market leader in customized flavor solutions. From flavored butter dollops to flavored sauces, mayo’s, marinades, and more there is no custom flavor solution challenge Butterball Farms can’t tackle. Your desired flavor can become a reality that kitchen staff can easily and quickly serve up.

What are the latest solutions we’re providing to our customers today? Here are three that are ready to assist your flavor challenge.

1. Flavored Dollops: A Consistent Time-Saver

Flavored dollops are time-savers in the kitchen and assures consistency in every meal.

Flavored dollops are time-savers in the kitchen and assures consistency in every meal.

Nothing drives flavor like butter, and since the 1400s, chefs have been combining herbs and spices in butter to embed flavor into proteins and vegetables. Butterball Farms developed its own flavor dollops to help menu developers save time and assure consistency.

While Butterball Farms can offer a myriad of flavors from within its existing formulas, many menu developers contact the company for custom-crafted flavors to support new menu items that meet their desired needs and applications. From a unique strawberry butter for pancakes to a green goddess dollop for a vegetarian dish and bacon/shallot dollops for Brussel sprouts, no challenge has yet to defy the ingenuity of the company’s research and development team.

Dollops help menu developers impart their desired flavor easily.

Dollops help menu developers impart their desired flavor easily.

One flavor profile that is trending in the food industry is garlic parmesan.

We’re seeing a lot of interest in garlic parmesan dollops,” say Butterball Farms Vice-President of Development and Quality Systems, Lucia Falek. The flavor is up on restaurant menus by 30% over the past four years*. “The flavor is versatile for proteins, such as steak or pastas, but we’re also seeing our dollops used to impart flavor on loaded fries, boneless wings, and mac & cheese.” Dollops are likewise being used to finish off burgers for a rich garlic parmesan flavor just before they are added to the bun.

Falek’s team has recently conquered the flavor of buffalo sauce in a dollop with a hint of smokiness to melt perfect of chicken drumettes or wings. Her team’s development of an elote dollop helps chains speed the prep of America’s fastest growing comfort food*.

The Butterball R&D team has a wealth of experience and expertise in creating unique and delicious flavor profiles for your menu. We understand that menu innovation can be a complex and time-consuming process, but we’re here to make it easier for you. Our capabilities range from researching new and exciting flavor trends to experimenting with different ingredients and techniques to create unique and delicious flavor profiles. We work closely with you to understand your needs and preferences, and we’re dedicated to creating a menu that exceeds your expectations. With our help, you can focus on running your business while we handle the process of developing unique flavor profiles for your menu.

2. Finding More Efficiencies in The Kitchen

Prepared flavored butters in tubs is one example of how Butterball Farms is helping save time and labor in the kitchen.

Prepared flavored butters in tubs is one example of how Butterball Farms is helping save time and labor in the kitchen.

One of the biggest challenges of the year is finding and keeping good kitchen staff. Some operator surveys find that full-service restaurants are 30% understaffed among line cooks alone. Everyone is paying more to hang on to the best employees, thus kitchen efficiency is key.

Menu developers are now choosing our flavored butter tubs instead of trying to make their own compound butters from scratch. A quick tally of hours needed to prepare a few days’ worth of a compound butter quickly tells the story.

The time needed to prepare compound butters from scratch can be a significant drain on available staff time.

The time needed to prepare compound butters from scratch can be a significant drain on available staff time.

As the chart above demonstrates, kitchen staff time can be saved on prep and clean up by opting for an easier way to prepare compound butters by choosing Butterball Farms flavored butter tubs and dollops.

3. Honey Butter Just Keeps Climbing

Add a honey butter dollop atop a chicken sandwich for the perfect flavor pairing!

Add a honey butter dollop atop a chicken sandwich for the perfect flavor pairing!

One of the fastest-growing flavors on menus over the past year is honey butter, up 10%* on menus. Yet creating your own entry into offering honey flavor can be costly and time consuming. Butterball Farms has several solutions that ramps up flavor for your takeout or dine-in business. Butterball Farms Honey Butter PCs are an ideal solution for breakfast breads, pancakes, or waffles and a great solution for takeout dinners with sides such as baked sweet potatoes or as a complement to your next chicken sandwich. You can even customize the lid stock with your logo.

Butterball Farms stepped up the honey flavor craze last year with the release of its new Honey w/ Cinnamon Sugar Butter Hive, a uniquely shaped butter with honey and cinnamon blended with premium butter.

Ready to create a unique, craveable flavor? Contact us today!

*Datassential, 2023