Butter
I made butter a couple of days ago as a test at work. It was super easy and turned out exactly like the butter we order. I think that there is no point to making your own butter unless you have really beautiful, fresh, organic cream. I want rich golden butter. They made all their own butter at Coi and it was really beautiful. I’ve also heard things about cultured butter but I’m not sure what it is.
I want to use the buttermilk to make creme fraiche but I’m not sure if it will work the same as the store bought buttermilk. It is really thin, sweet and mild.
I was in Parma, Italy last week and stayed at this cool little b and b in the country. As part of the breakfast they provided, there was unpasteurized butter that they make every few days with milk from a local farm. It was so sweet and delicious I wanted to cry. There was parmigiano reggiano factories everywhere.
The Nonna of the house, Maria, made the best cake I have ever had. I got the recipe.
Cultured butter is butter made from fermented cream. Its flavour is more ‘buttery’ because the flavour of butter is actually the flavour of fats starting to age. It’s my favourite butter.
Traditional buttermilk is the whey from this cultured butter and it’s sour because of the lactic acid bacteria working on the cream, this is what makes creme fraiche thicken. Store-bought buttermilk is cream with this bacterial culture added to it.
It sounds like you made your butter with fresh cream and that’s why the whey is sweet, so if your creme fraiche doesn’t work it’s due to a lack of bacterial action.
Ps. On the colour of butter:
If you want a deep yellow butter you need milk from grass-fed cows. Grass-fed cattle have yellow fat and grain-fed cattle have white fat. It’s likely that that the cows at Dairyland never see a field because consumers are used to having stark white milk. I’m not even sure where one would get grass-fed milk besides buying it illegally from a farmer. Look out! Milk Police!
mmmmmmmm butter
Hey Owen. Good to here from you. Suck in the beauty of Italy and learn lessons from them, they have the right idea of life. xoxox
the color of the butter also depends on the type of cow it comes from, and the time of year. jersey cows are prized for their milk because of its super high fat content and its yellow color. try aging you butter. wrap it in cheesecloth and hang it in the wine room for a week. then try it. also leave some of your buttermilk out covered with cheesecloth, see if it starts to get a little funky… thats culture baby.
if your buying cream from a big producer its most likely pasturized, killing the natural goodies, but go the farmers market and ask around. you never know what you might find.
hows your bitters turning out?
store bought (cultured) buttermilk is inoculated with Streptococcus bacteria and is generally about 3% MF, way less than cream. yum!
Butter is one of those things, like pine nuts, that we have all grown accustomed to eating slightly rancid. double yum!