Cultured Compound Herbs Butter

Let’s talk about butter my friends. Butter is very important in our kitchen. We all know what it is and we all have tried it. But can you say you’ve tried a sophisticated, deeply-flavored, healthy and packed with healthy enzymes butter? I am talking about cultured butter and if you’ve never tried cultured butter then this post is especially for you!

Back in the day, when I spent most of my childhood at my grandma’s little farm in Ukraine, we used to make butter straight from raw cream. All butter was cultured, as it’s the best way to keep it from spoiling. Raw cream has all the necessary bacteria to turn it into cultured butter. Nowadays, very few of us have access to raw cream, as all of the commercial cream we can find at the grocery stores is pasteurized. Pasteurized cream doesn’t have those beneficial bacteria in it to culture on it’s own, since they were all destroyed during the heating process. Therefore, to make cultured butter from pasteurized cream you must add some sort of starter culture.

Introducing the bacteria into the pasteurized cream is a very simple process. To get live cultures you can use yogurt, buttermilk, crème fraîche or sour cream, as long as they contain live, active cultures and minimum to zero stabilizers and thickeners. Simply mix it into the cream and leave to sit at room temperature to culture for about 24 hours.

Don’t you love when a recipe calls for a few tablespoons of cream, and you end up with nearly a whole carton of leftovers sitting and spoiling in your fridge? Making butter is such an awesome way to use any cream you have left from the previous recipe, plus it’s so much fun!

Be sure to use quality cream for your butter. Since it’s practically your only ingredient, you will taste the difference. I usually go for the organic and grass-fed source. Also, try avoiding ultra-pasteurized cream since it has been heated severely, ruining much of the flavor, and you might have harder time culturing it.

Seasoning the butter to make cultured compound herbs butter is a real time-saver. I mean, just place a knob of this butter on top of some simple grilled chicken breast or a good steak and you’ve got a great meal in a matter of minutes.

We are currently hooked on garlic-thyme and basil-chives combinations of our flavored butter.

I seem to never run out of ideas of using these seasoned butters, which I keep in the freezer and slice as I need. I love it with mashed potatoes or tucked into baked potatoes. I toss it with fresh pasta with parmesan shavings on one of these evenings when I’m looking for a quick meal. I love basil-chives butter for it’s emerald green color and flavor which goes amazing with so many things like grilled salmon, steak and corn. A spoonful of creamy garlic-thyme butter is a perfect match to shrimp, scallops or asparagus risotto. I plan on using a generous knob into steamed clams shortly.

However you decide to make it, or whatever you decide to add for extra flavor, your batch of homemade cultured butter is guaranteed to taste like a little bit of spreadable heaven.

Ingredients:

1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream (preferably organic and not ultra-pasteurized)

2 tbsp plain yogurt/sour cream/buttermilk/crème fraîche (preferably no stabilizers, flavorings, or other additive)

1/2 tsp sea or kosher salt

4 cups of ice water, for washing the butter

Makes about 1 cup of butter and 8 ounces of buttermilk

The day before you would like to make your butter, pour the cream into a clean bowl and add the yogurt/sour cream/buttermilk/crème fraîche. Whisk briefly to combine and cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Let it sit at room temperature to culture for about 24 hours. The cream is ready when it has thickened slightly and is a little foamy. It will smell slightly sour and tangy. Once it has cultured, place it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour to chill.

Place the cream in the bowl of your mixer or processor. Cover the top with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel to prevent splattering.

Turn on the mixer to medium-high. The cream will first whip into stiff peaks.

Keep whipping until the solid mass (butter) and liquid (buttermilk) have separated, about 15-20 minutes. The mixture will splatter heavily in the final stages of churning, so be sure the plastic wrap is secure.

Pour the buttermilk through the cheesecloth into a jar, holding the butter solid back. Refrigerate the jar with buttermilk for up to a week and use anytime when the recipe calls for buttermilk. Great in biscuits, pastries or for culturing heavy cream for another batch of butter.

Place the formed butter into a bowl with icy water and rinse thoroughly pressing the butter into the ice water. It will quickly become cloudy with buttermilk. Pour off the cloudy water, add another 1/2 cup of ice water to the bowl, and keep pressing. Repeat until the water is clear. This may take up to 6 washings. The butter will firm up towards the end, so you may find it easier to use your hands.

Put the butter ball on a cutting board and sprinkle with some salt.

If you are not planning on making cultured compound herbs butter and prefer on using it plain simply store it in the airtight container and place in the fridge for up to a month, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Basil-Chive Compound Butter:

1/3 cup basil

2 tbsp chives, thinly sliced

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup cultured butter at room temperature

pinch of salt

 

Garlic-Thyme Compound Butter

1 large or 3 small cloves garlic

1 tbsp fresh thyme, finely minced

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup cultured butter at room temperature

pinch of salt

For the basil-chive butter blanch the basil in a boiling salted water just until wilted, about 10 seconds, then drain and transfer to ice water. Drain again and squeeze dry. Chop roughly.

Puree the basil, olive oil and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and puree until smooth and well blended. Taste and add more salt if desired. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the chives using the spoon.

Refrigerate until firm enough to shape into a log. Put a piece of parchment paper (you can also use plastic wrap or aluminum foil) on your work surface. Spoon the butter down the centre of the parchment paper into a log. Enclose in the paper and wist the ends to make a sealed log.

Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 6 months.

For the garlic-thyme butter, put the garlic cloves in a sauce pan with just enough olive oil to cover them. Place over low heat and simmer until the cloves are soft and golden, 15-20 minutes. With a slotted spoon scoop the garlic into a bowl, then mash to a puree. Reserve the oil.

Combine the butter with garlic puree, reserved oil, thyme and a pinch of salt. Mix until well combined.

Refrigerate until firm enough to shape into a log. Put a piece of parchment paper (you can also use plastic wrap or aluminum foil) on your work surface. Spoon the butter down the centre of the parchment paper into a log. Enclose in the paper and wist the ends to make a sealed log.

Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 6 months.