Cultured Butter

I already have a foolproof recipe on my website for homemade butter, and it works really well. However, you will see that may have seen “Cultured Butter”on some restaurant menus. So, I thought it would be fun to add a recipe for that too. The addition of a culturing agent gives a delicious tang to the butter, and there are few things better than just eating it smothered on a piece of toasted sourdough.

Cultured Butter Recipe

(Makes approximately 2 sticks)

Ingredients

5 Cups Organic Cream
1/3 Cup Whole Milk Yogurt/Buttermilk or Kefir
Salt (Optional)
Iced Water

Equipment

Large glass container
Cheesecloth
Colander
Stand Mixer (or blender)
Parchment Paper

Instructions

Place the organic cream into the glass container.
Add your culturing agent like yogurt, buttermilk, Kefir, etc.
Stir well to mix the two together.
Cover the container with a layer of cheesecloth.
Leave for 48 hours in a warm place.
After 48 hours, pour all the contents of the container into the bowl of your stand mixer.
Using the whisk attachment, whisk the contents at a medium speed.
After 4 or 5 minutes you will see the cream begin to break into two parts, the butter solids and the butter milk.
Place a colander over a bowl and line with more cheesecloth.
Strain the contents of the bowl. (You can keep the buttermilk residue for baking or to soak chicken to fry.)
Wrap the butter solids tightly in the cheesecloth and squeeze hard to remove as much excess buttermilk as possible.
Remove the butter (which should be a tight ball by now) from cheesecloth and lower into the iced water. Work it with your hands until the remainder of the buttermilk is gone.
I like to salt half of my butter and leave half unsalted. It is up to you. If you want to salt it, sprinkle with a ½ teaspoon of salt and knead it into the butter.
Place two layers of parchment paper on a cutting board.
Place the butter on the parchment paper and wrap into a rough rectangle.

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