To every season, churn, churn, churn
Nov. 29th, 2010 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerLast mumble week's Resolution Recipe: Cultured Butter.
Leave that potted fern on top of your grandmother's heirloom butter churn - all you need is a broad wooden spoon and a bowl. Look for good, raw or non-ultra-pasteurized cream in a natural food store or the farmers' market, or talk to local dairy farmers. Steer clear of the "ultra-pasteurized" cream widely available in grocery stores, as its flavors have been thoroughly cooked out. If you want your butter to have a gorgeous golden hue, look for cream from grass-fed cows, as their milk has a greater vitamin A content.
(I got a half gallon of raw whole milk from a source I will not disclose. It was from a Jersey cow that fed on grass and other greens, and it was yummy. The top three inches of the jar, at least, separated into gorgeous thick cream which we spooned out and used for this.)
First, put your cream into a very large bowl. Add a good dollop of plain live-culture yogurt, mix well, cover with a plate or board, and let it sit in a warm spot overnight. In the morning, stir the cream vigorously for a few minutes. It will start to thicken and look grainy. Keep stirring. Suddenly the butter clumps will stick together, and with a few more strokes, you'll have a lump of butter in a pool of thin, translucent buttermilk. Drain the buttermilk - but do save it for biscuits!
Next, flatten the butter lump and chill it for a while, because it's still soft and warm from being left out overnight. When it's stiffer, take it in your hands and knead it under running water, either in a bowl or your sink if it's clean enough, or on an angled board. There are trapped pockets of buttermilk in the butter, and if you don't work them all out, the buttermilk will sour unpleasantly and the butter will not keep well.
Doesn't it feel absolutely delightful to squeeze a couple of pounds of butter in your hands, instead of rationing out little bits from a foil-wrapped pat? When all the buttermilk is washed out, let the butter dry a bit, wrap it tightly in parchment, and refrigerate it. It's delicious right away, but if you let it age for a week or two in the refrigerator, it will only get better.
What worked: Beautifully yellow, with more complex (and tasty) flavors than the butter I buy at the store.
What didn't: I apparently haven't mastered kneading out all the buttermilk. I've made this twice, and the butter started to sour after a week. The second time I didn't let it culture long enough, and it took waaaaay too long to coalesce into butter.
Will I make it again? Not regularly, but yes.
Leave that potted fern on top of your grandmother's heirloom butter churn - all you need is a broad wooden spoon and a bowl. Look for good, raw or non-ultra-pasteurized cream in a natural food store or the farmers' market, or talk to local dairy farmers. Steer clear of the "ultra-pasteurized" cream widely available in grocery stores, as its flavors have been thoroughly cooked out. If you want your butter to have a gorgeous golden hue, look for cream from grass-fed cows, as their milk has a greater vitamin A content.
(I got a half gallon of raw whole milk from a source I will not disclose. It was from a Jersey cow that fed on grass and other greens, and it was yummy. The top three inches of the jar, at least, separated into gorgeous thick cream which we spooned out and used for this.)
First, put your cream into a very large bowl. Add a good dollop of plain live-culture yogurt, mix well, cover with a plate or board, and let it sit in a warm spot overnight. In the morning, stir the cream vigorously for a few minutes. It will start to thicken and look grainy. Keep stirring. Suddenly the butter clumps will stick together, and with a few more strokes, you'll have a lump of butter in a pool of thin, translucent buttermilk. Drain the buttermilk - but do save it for biscuits!
Next, flatten the butter lump and chill it for a while, because it's still soft and warm from being left out overnight. When it's stiffer, take it in your hands and knead it under running water, either in a bowl or your sink if it's clean enough, or on an angled board. There are trapped pockets of buttermilk in the butter, and if you don't work them all out, the buttermilk will sour unpleasantly and the butter will not keep well.
Doesn't it feel absolutely delightful to squeeze a couple of pounds of butter in your hands, instead of rationing out little bits from a foil-wrapped pat? When all the buttermilk is washed out, let the butter dry a bit, wrap it tightly in parchment, and refrigerate it. It's delicious right away, but if you let it age for a week or two in the refrigerator, it will only get better.
What worked: Beautifully yellow, with more complex (and tasty) flavors than the butter I buy at the store.
What didn't: I apparently haven't mastered kneading out all the buttermilk. I've made this twice, and the butter started to sour after a week. The second time I didn't let it culture long enough, and it took waaaaay too long to coalesce into butter.
Will I make it again? Not regularly, but yes.
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Date: 2010-11-29 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 02:04 am (UTC)Awesome!
Date: 2010-11-30 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 07:10 pm (UTC)