Salted, home-churned, organic, goat or sheep, grass-fed or just good old plain unsalted butter ... if you're a butter lover you're bound to have your favourite block in the fridge, but perhaps have yet to try the sophisticated sour notes of cultured butter?
If this one's slipped through your fingers, it's time to learn more about the tangy delights of cultured butter and catch up with this sophisticated chef favourite.
How to make flavoured butter
Ex Faviken chef Grant Harrington knows a thing or two about cultured butter, making a living churning it at the UK;s Butter Culture - in fact, he's so good at it he supplies Michelin starred restaurants, like, Sat Bains and Jason Atherton's Pollen street social in London and Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir in Oxfordshire with his blocks.
So, what is cultured butter?
Cultured butter is made from the fermentation of cream, just how butter used to be made in the old days when raw cream soured before churning.
These days most cultured butter is made by a adding starter culture bacteria to the cream, with yoghurt or kefir, instead of relying on natural fermentation.
Cultured butter can be used just like regular butter, taking into account its distinctive flavour which Grant Harrington describes as a "rich cream flavour complemented with a complex buttery acidic note."
Ingredients to make cultured butter:
The ingredients are simple: heavy cream, preferably organic and not ultra-pasteurized, plain yoghurt or kefir, salt (optional), iced water for washing the butter.
How to Make Cultured Butter
Discover how easy it is to make cultured butter at home with Brad from Bon Appetit , and remember you'll need 2-3 days for the fermentation process, but once made, the butter should last up to a month:
