Cultured butter is popping up on restaurant menus everywhere. But did you know it's easy to make at home too? Let us demonstrate how.
Recipe for cultured butter
Ingredients
1 litre 40% fat high quality double cream (heavy cream)
100ml sour cream, crème fraîche or plain yogurt, which is the starter
Rock salt, to taste (approx. 20g)
Special kit
Piece of muslin large enough to cover your mixing bowl
Electric stand mixer or handheld electric beaters
Digital thermometer
Mesh strainer
Method for making cultured butter
Begin by choosing your favourite sour cream or crème fraîche, or even a thick, set yogurt (ensuring it isn’t the low-fat variety) as a starter. The flavour you taste in this is the lactic bacteria, and it is this lactobacillus that will culture the cream that you will churn to become your butter – in other words, the flavour of that lactic bacteria will be reflected in the finished butter.
Next, you need to find a really good-quality double cream, with approximately 40% fat. You’ll need twice the amount of cream than the amount of butter you want to make – we recommend starting with 1 litre, which will give you a 500g pat of butter. And if you want to adapt the quantities in the recipe, stick to a ratio of 10% starter to cream.
STEP 1 In a large and spotlessly clean bowl, mix together your cream and starter (sour cream, crème fraîche or Greek yogurt), stirring well to make sure the starter is fully incorporated. Cover the bowl with muslin and leave at room temperature (about 25ºC) for 20 hours.
STEP 2 When the time is up replace the muslin with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for a further 20 hours. Remove the cultured cream from the fridge and leave it at room temperature for about an hour, or until it has warmed to around 8–14ºC. This chilling and warming encourages the bacteria to develop and the fresh cream to ferment.
STEP 3 Now we’re ready to churn. Using an electric stand mixer or hand-held beaters on medium high speed (or even whisking by hand if you fancy an arm workout) begin to whisk your cultured cream. It’s important to have your bowl no more than half full, as the cream will expand before it splits. When the cream completely splits to form yellow globules (called popcorn butter) and liquid (buttermilk), strain through a sieve, reserving both the popcorn butter and the homemade buttermilk.
STEP 4 This cultured buttermilk will keep for 12 days in the fridge. Quickly knead the popcorn butter on a cold, clean surface by working it with the heels of your hands, squeezing out any remaining buttermilk until all the moisture has been taken from your butter. Season with salt to taste, then hand knead the butter again to release any final excess of moisture. The cultured butter will keep for up to three weeks in the fridge, and will continue to mature and develop over that time.
