Cultured butter…enormous flavor and no fuss

GH always dreams of the day I make my own cheese. I’m not there yet, but I’ve taken another step towards that end. This week I made cultured butter. A few weeks back the NYT’s food section published an article about how to make butter. Wow, it sounded easy…however I’ve had a lot of “oh no” and “what the frack have I got myself into” moments thanks to those pages. But I decided to give it a try and I ordered a half gallon of heavy cream from our dairy. Then I started thinking about what I like about butter. We’re lucky enough here in Wisconsin to be able to buy really delicious, fresh, cultured, organic, sweet butter and while I love all those things about it I especially love that it’s cultured. It’s the zip, the zest, the tang that the cultured cream gives and you can smell it as you unwrap the stick…good stuff.

A quick check of the internets landed me at Traveler’s Lunchbox where I learned that culturing cream is as simple as making creme fraiche. So I took my cream and added about 1/3 cup of fage yogurt, stirred it up and let it sit on the counter for about 18 hours. Then I chilled it in the refrigerator overnight and the next morning I made butter.

I put the cream in the bowl of my mixer and fitted it with the whisk attachment. I covered the top of the bowl with saran wrap, leaving an area open for the orbital spinning of the whisk. I turned it on to medium, set the timer for 8 minutes because the recipe indicates that it takes 5 to 8 minutes so I wanted to see how long it would really take. Within 4 minutes the cream was turning yellow and then it started pebbling and then the buttermilk started spattering up onto the saran wrap. According to the directions it was done and it was about 4:49 in total time.

At this point I followed the instructions precisely and it all seemed easy although everything about it was totally foreign. Squeezing butter is not natural but it worked and I got quite a bit of buttermilk for my baking projects. It also produced a lot of butter with a taste so fresh and delicious that we were all stunned. Think of the possibilities, dinner rolls, corn on the cob, muffins, pasta.

What will I do differently next time?
• I’ll double the amount of yogurt just to see what happens
• I’ll have a bowl of iced water ready for the squeezing and pressing part to keep the butter cool as I squeeze and press the buttermilk out
• I’ll have my parchment paper precut and my bowls, sieves, and strainers out and ready to use

What should you do?
• Run out and get the best local cream available
• Culture that luscious cream
• Chill the cultured cream before you start making the butter

My dairy pasteurizes at a low temperature and doesn’t homogenize their products and I think that makes a huge difference. I’m researching how to turn their product into cheese next.

Here’s the recipe from the NYT

Homemade Butter and Buttermilk

6 cups organic heavy cream

Salt to taste (optional).

1. Pour the cream into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk. Tightly cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and start mixer on medium-high speed. The cream will go through the whipped stage, thicken further and then change color from off-white to pale yellow; this will take at least 5 to 8 minutes. When it starts to look pebbly, it’s almost done. After another minute the butter will separate, causing the liquid to splash against the plastic wrap. At this point stop the mixer.

2. Set a strainer over a bowl. Pour the contents of the mixer into the strainer and let the buttermilk drain through. Strain the buttermilk again, this time through a fine-mesh sieve set over a small bowl; set aside.

3. Keeping the butter in the strainer set over the first bowl, knead it to consolidate the remaining liquid and fat and expel the rest of the buttermilk. Knead until the texture is dense and creamy, about 5 minutes. Strain the excess liquid into the buttermilk. Refrigerate the buttermilk.

4. Mix salt into the butter, if you want. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate. Makes about 16 ounces (2 cups) each of butter and buttermilk.

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26 July 2007 | Wisconsin, eggs, cheese, dairy, ethical eating, favorite products, food, food porn, quick and easy, recipe | Comments