Make cultured butter (and real buttermilk) by hand

Fall in love with rich, tangy old-fashioned butter.

We love to share old fashioned and traditional recipes on our recipe blog as the process is often so much easier than people might realise. Discovering the simplicity in these forgotten practices and tasting the difference is extremely satisfying and can be lots of fun for the whole family.

Homemade butter can be made simply by agitating pure cream however culturing the cream first produces an unparalleled superior delicacy. The slightly tangy flavour sets it apart from regular butter. 

Cultured cream is a fermented food that contains live bacterial cultures. The fermentation process is similar to making homemade yogurt, only easier. With a yogurt maker culturing pure cream into homemade crème fraiche or sour cream couldn’t be more straight-forward. Be sure to watch our recipe how-to video here before you dive deeper. 

Churning homemade cultured cream into butter is a heavenly, healthy fat for you and your gut microbes! We know you will luv this creamy lacto-fermented deliciousness spread or spooned on top of anything you desire. 

It’s possible to churn the cream in the Vibe Blender (we show you how here) but we’ve chosen the old-fashioned method that requires no-special equipment, just a glass jar in fact. Plus, some patience and stamina! Consider the process a little workout. If you have children, they will enjoy having a turn to shake the jar.

An extra bonus of making cultured butter from scratch is that you’ll end up with real fermented buttermilk in the process! Save the fresh buttermilk for baking and use it in pancakes, muffins, or bread. Delicious.

INGREDIENTS

Homemade cultured cream (instruction video here)
1 cup chilled filtered water
¼ teaspoon fine salt (optional)

METHOD

1.   Begin with homemade cultured cream that has chilled for at least 6 hours.
2.   Remove the cream from the fridge and spoon into a 1 litre glass jar and firmly secure the lid.
3.   If you are keen for a good work out, begin shaking the bottle up and down right away. For fastest results, allow the cream to come to room temperature first.
4.   Shake the cream vigorously (this can be fun for kids too)
5.   Over the next few minutes the cream will go through different textural stages. First whipped cream, then buttery clumps form and then a large mass of yellow butter with separated white buttermilk.
6.   Open the jar and pour out the buttermilk. Reserve for further cooking.
7.   Continue shaking the butter once more to remove the final traces of buttermilk.
8.   Open the jar and pour in half a cup of chilled filtered water to rinse butter. Return the lid tightly and shake the jar again for another minute. Unscrew the lid and discard the water.

9.   If drops of buttermilk are still visible, repeat the process with the remaining water. Note: This stage of the butter making process is very important as leaving buttermilk in the butter may cause the butter to spoil more quickly.
10.  Salting the butter is optional. If desired, add salt to the jar and shake for another minute to thoroughly combine.
11.  Taste test the butter. If you think it’s too salty, just rinse it under filtered water to remove the excess salt.
12.  Turn the butter out of the jar onto baking paper and press into shape.
13.  Wrap the butter in baking paper and refrigerate to set.
14.  Homemade cultured cream is best kept fresh in the fridge and should last several weeks. Cultured butter will spoil quickly if left out at room temperature for too long.
15.  If you would like the butter to remain spreadable it would be best to only leave a small amount out of the fridge at a time.  

If you have enjoyed this post you might also like to try making Quark and ricotta cheese. 

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