Meals from a local chef always have amazing butter which he makes in house.
He uses yoghurt to culture his but as we already make our own kefir I have been using this to culture the cream.
To a couple of pots of cream which I decant into a jar I add a couple of tablespoons of kefir and a few kefir grains. Leave out at room temp for 3-5 days with a bit of kitchen towel over the top to stop bugs and dirt getting in.
Chill for a few more days to allow the flavour to develop. Then into a chilled food processor and churn until the butter milk separates out. Tip out the butter milk and retain for pancakes etc. Then add ice cold water and churn again, discard the water. Repeat the cold water and churn thing until the water coming out is clear.
Onto a clean work surface spread the butter out using a bench knife and more water will fall out. Keep on spreading out the butter and discarding the water that comes out. Once it is close to dry I put the butter on a clean drying up cloth and wrap it up tightly and squeeze out any remaining liquid. Then cut into the butter some salt or other flavouring. If feeling fancy wrap it up in cling film to make a roll so you can cut off roundels of butter.
Its a completely different beast to supermarket butter, much more flavour and we now frequently have just bread and butter instead of bread and cheese for lunch.
Next I want to get local unhomegenised organic cream to hopefully improve flavour even more.
Anyone else making cultured butter?
Meals from a local chef always have amazing butter which he makes in house.
He uses yoghurt to culture his but as we already make our own kefir I have been using this to culture the cream.
To a couple of pots of cream which I decant into a jar I add a couple of tablespoons of kefir and a few kefir grains. Leave out at room temp for 3-5 days with a bit of kitchen towel over the top to stop bugs and dirt getting in.
Chill for a few more days to allow the flavour to develop. Then into a chilled food processor and churn until the butter milk separates out. Tip out the butter milk and retain for pancakes etc. Then add ice cold water and churn again, discard the water. Repeat the cold water and churn thing until the water coming out is clear.
Onto a clean work surface spread the butter out using a bench knife and more water will fall out. Keep on spreading out the butter and discarding the water that comes out. Once it is close to dry I put the butter on a clean drying up cloth and wrap it up tightly and squeeze out any remaining liquid. Then cut into the butter some salt or other flavouring. If feeling fancy wrap it up in cling film to make a roll so you can cut off roundels of butter.
Its a completely different beast to supermarket butter, much more flavour and we now frequently have just bread and butter instead of bread and cheese for lunch.
Next I want to get local unhomegenised organic cream to hopefully improve flavour even more.