It's like buttah {European-style Cultured Butter}

Have you ever made butter? In elementary school, we made bread in a coffee can and butter in a jar with a few marbles to act as agitators as part of our Thanksgiving feast. It seemed like magic and the results were delicious. My mother recalls fondly that her grandma, Grandma Kaupert, had a milk cow as part of her rural menagerie.  Although she could have done without the taunting of her Uncle Forrest squirting warm milk straight from the cow in her city-girl face, fresh milk and making home made butter were always a part of her visits to "the country."

It seems as though the universe has been sending a message to me that it was time to dabble in the butter making arts. First, over the course of the last month, I've been habitually buying heavy cream (okay, just 3 quarts, but still). Second, in the past so many weeks, the topic of making butter has appeared in several places in my reading. A couple of food magazines have featured articles on the topic and The New York Times also had a fairly recent story on the subject. It seems that artisanal butter making is the darling of the food media and is becoming a bit like cheese making. (with similar cost - some prices reach almost to $16/lb!) There is much discussion about the cream used, the feed the dairy cows eat, the process making the butter and how it is finished (some is rolled in oak ash for flavoring much like a cheese). While there was a lot of variation on the topic, one thing was clear - European-style cultured butter is a cut above our standard table butter. 

Prior to refrigeration and Pasteurization, pretty much all  butter was made with cultured cream. Dairy products were used first as fresh milk and then left on the counter. The natural bacteria in the raw milk would do its magic and folks would have clabbered milk (akin to yogurt) during the dairy product's next "stage of development" If left long enough, a type of farmer cheese would be produced. Nothing wasted, everything used.  It is the fermented dairy product which provides more flavor and a bit of a nuttiness or tanginess to the finished product in this butter. In the past, I've made Creme Fraiche so I'm not afraid to leave my cultured dairy on the counter for a day or two. With some research under my belt on the process, and two quarts of creme, a stand mixer and some buttermilk and yogurt for cultures, I was ready to give it a whirl.

European-Style Cultured Butter

• 1 quart heavy cream
• 1/3 C cultured buttermilk -or- 1/2 C plain whole milk yogurt (with live active cultures)
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt (or to taste) if you prefer/desire salted butter
• ice water

1. Culture: Since all of our commercial milk products have been Pasteurized, the first step is to culture your cream. In a bowl whisk the cream with the buttermilk or the yogurt. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temp. until the mixture becomes thickened. (at least 12 hours but can sit as long as 48 hrs.)
2. Churn: 
1. Scrape the cultured cream into your butter churn crock  the bowl of a stand mixer, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled (about 45 minutes) This step is key - do not miss this step!
2. There will be a lot of spattering. Cover the bowl rim with plastic or use a pouring shield. Using your stand mixer, beat the cream with the whisk attachment at high speed until the butter solids begin to pull together and form a ball. (This will take about 4-5 minutes.) Drain the butter solids in a fine strainer or sieve set over a medium bowl. Bonus! Reserve the residual buttermilk for another use.
3. Rinse & Knead:
1. Transfer the butter to a bowl and knead it to rid the solids of any additional excess buttermilk. 
2. Pour 1/4 cup ice cold water over the butter and knead again. Drain. Repeat adding ice water and kneading and draining about 3 more times. Continue kneading until the butter no longer releases any water.
4. Form: Form the butter into a cylinder or a block.Wrap the butter tightly in plastic and follow with parchment. Refrigerate.

Note: You should yield close to 3/4 - 1 lb of butter and 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk from one quart of cream and your culturing agent. Not a bad return on investment if you ask me.

So, I had grand plans for a Butter-Battle Royale with a face-off between yogurt and buttermilk cultured creams. However, due to my failure to follow the chilling of the cream step for the yogurt-cultured batch, it didn't make any butter. Instead, the result was some sort of whipped yogurt-cream cheese type thing. Tasty, but not butter. The butter that I did make from the buttermilk culture is fabulously divine. And, I couldn't be more thrilled with the bonus of buttermilk. Both were used this morning when I made Buttermilk Pancakes for breakfast. I'll give you that recipe as a bonus since they turned out so amazingly well - light and fluffy- just so, so good. (It has to be that homemade buttermilk.)

Buttermilk Pancakes

• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 C buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. I am not a 2 bowl kind of gal when it comes to pancakes so: In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and gently whisk them together. Mix just until combined (do not overmix).
2. Spoon 1/4 C of batter onto prepared and heated griddle. Cook until the top of the pancake is dotted with bubbles and some have popped. Flip and cook until the underside is lightly browned. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200F oven while you finish cooking the rest. Serve with Pure Maple Syrup and pats of your homemade European-style cultured butter.

Happy Cooking!

sld

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