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Cultured Butter

Source of Recipe

From "The America's Test Kitchen D.I.Y. Cookbook"


Recipe Introduction

"When other kids in preschool were eating peanut butter and jelly, I was munching on butter sandwiches. Our family had a separate freezer when I was growing up just for butter—my mother bought 75 pounds every time it went on sale. So it's not surprising that today I'm regularly pouring brown butter sauces over fish, churning up butter ice cream, and baking brioche. And while I love it for sautéing and baking, a good butter—I mean a really good butter—can stand on its own. We're not talking Land O'Lakes here, but the European-style cultured stuff. Making butter, even cultured butter, isn't that hard. Take 48 hours plus about 30 minutes of hands-on time, and presto. All you have to do is add some live cultures to heavy cream and leave it to sit for a day or two. Then use your stand mixer to whip your cream until it separates into butter and buttermilk, go through a few simple steps to wash the butter, and that's it. Don't overlook the buttermilk you drain off. What you are getting here is the old-fashioned stuff that you've heard your mother and grandmother go on about. Use it for making waffles, pancakes, pies, or dressing, or drink it as is. Like butter, you can freeze buttermilk; it will lose some of its creaminess, but it's just fine for baking. Frozen buttermilk will look separated once thawed; simply shake to recombine. For the most reliable results, use fresh homogenized and pasteurized milk here."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 4 cups pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized or UHT) heavy cream, room temperature
â—¦ ½ cup plain whole-milk yogurt, room temperature
â—¦ ¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt (optional)


Recipe

Combine cream and yogurt in 2-quart jar with tight-fitting lid, cover, and shake to combine. Remove lid, cover with clean kitchen towel, butter muslin, or triple layer of cheesecloth, securing in place with rubber band. Place jar in warm place, about 75 degrees, and let sit until thickened to the consistency of yogurt, 18 to 48 hours. (If temperature dips much below 75 degrees, culture may take up to 60 hours.) Once thickened, remove kitchen towel, cover jar with lid, and transfer to refrigerator to cool until mixture registers 60 degrees, about 2 hours.

Place 4 cups of ice water in refrigerator. Line fine-mesh strainer with butter muslin or triple layer of cheesecloth and set over large bowl. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk and covered with plastic wrap, whip cream on high speed until cream separates into buttermilk and small clumps of yellow butter, 2 to 5 minutes. Strain butter through prepared strainer for 1 minute. Gather edges of muslin and twist to squeeze butter until buttermilk no longer flows freely from pouch. Remove butter from muslin and transfer to clean large bowl; reserve buttermilk for another use.

Pour about â…“ cup ice water over butter. With butter resting in water, use rubber spatula to fold butter against side of bowl, letting water wash over butter to rinse off any remaining buttermilk. Discard milky liquid, and repeat washing process until water remains clear, about six washes. After final wash, discard any water in bowl and continue to fold butter to squeeze out any remaining liquid; discard liquid. Sprinkle butter with salt, if using, and fold into butter. Divide butter in half, transfer to parchment paper, and roll into two logs or desired shape. Butter can be refrigerated for up to 1 month or frozen for at least 4 months.

Makes about 12 ounces butter and 1 ½ cups buttermilk