Sauces & Stuff
Homemade Cultured Butter
With its natural sweetness, one taste of Homemade Cultured Butter may have you swearing off the store-bought sticks. It also freezes well, so make a few batches at once.
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Tip
Line ¼-, ⅓-, and ½-cup measuring cups with plastic wrap; pack with soft butter, and refrigerate or freeze.
Instructions
Heat cream in a medium cast-iron Dutch oven over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until an instant-read thermometer registers 70°, 4 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in buttermilk. Cover Dutch oven loosely with plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature at least overnight or for up to 24 hours.
Refrigerate cream mixture for 1 hour.
Uncover cream mixture, and stir. (Mixture should be thick.) Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Drape a large kitchen towel over mixer to catch splatters. Beat at medium-high speed until cream begins to separate, about 5 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low; beat until butter solids and buttermilk have completely separated, about 5 minutes. (Solids will be yellow in color and mostly clump inside whisk.)
Place a fine-mesh sieve lined with two layers of ultrafine cheesecloth over a large bowl. Pour in butter mixture; gather cheesecloth around butter solids, and squeeze to release liquid. Reserve buttermilk for another use.
Fill a large bowl with ice water. Place butter solids in another large bowl; add about ½ cup ice water to butter. Using a silicone spatula, knead butter until water is cloudy. Drain, and repeat until water runs clear, 6 to 8 washings. (Use hands to knead toward end of process, if necessary.) Knead salt (if using) directly into butter. Pack butter into an airtight container. Cover and refrigerate until firm before using, 1 to 2 hours. To store, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze in a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag for up to 3 months.
WARM IT: Heavy cream is heated and then cultured buttermilk is added, and the mixture is left to stand at room temperature to allow good cultures to grow. These cultures give the finished butter a slightly tangy flavor.
WHIP IT: The first stage of butter is to make whipped cream. As the cream is beaten, it will go from a liquid to a fluffy cream to a stiff whipped cream. Essentially, butter is overly beaten whipped cream.
CHURN IT: When the butter is close to being done, the stiff whipped cream will separate, creating a thin liquid with small, grainy curds like cottage cheese. This is the milk whey and butterfat separating. This whey is a traditional buttermilk, a bit thinner than what you find in stores today.
WASH IT: Once the cream has completely separated, the butterfat is pressed together and kneaded in cold water. This removes excess whey from the fat, giving the butter a richer flavor and longer shelf life. Ice water helps keep the butter from melting while being handled.