Butter
What's Dreydl looking at so longingly? A crock of butter. Hand-made butter. No lie. Sweet, irresistible, utterly nuts. Butter. This may well be the most outrageous thing I've ever blogged.
So how'd I get a crock of homemade butter? Last weekend, we were at the Epicurean Classic in Saint Joseph, Michigan, and we met the fabulous Jennifer McLagan, author of one of our favorite books: FAT: AN APPRECIATION OF A MISUNDERSTOOD INGREDIENT WITH RECIPES. Jennifer and her husband were a hoot. My only regret was that on the last night, we had to get to bed early to catch a morning flight and missed a chance to get (as Jennifer delicately put it) "pissed" with them in the hotel bar.
During her demo on a cold, rainy day, Jennifer made butter from scratch. We were sitting in the back--Bruce was knitting, I was editing our new book. I instantly nudged him in the ribs. "I want that," I said.
So we came home, he read through her recipe, and made it. From scratch. Butter. Indeed. Here's how it went.
Bruce started with 2 pints (1 quart) heavy cream. According to Jennifer, it can't be ultra-pasteurized, which means we had to do a little searching among gourmet stores to find organic cream that was merely "pasteurized."
The first task was to warm it up a bit. He poured it into a bowl and let it come to 60F on an instant-read meat ther-mometer stuck into the mix. It took almost 1 1/2 hours on a rather cool day.
Next, he attached the whisk to the stand mixer and set it going in the bowl at medium-low speed (#3 out of 10 on the KitchenAid mixer). Of course, first came the whipped cream after about five or six minutes, about like this:
More and more whipping. Then all of the sudden, after a few minutes, out of the blue, like magic, it started to look curdled and clump up, and then yellow curds started to form, like this:
And finally, very quickly, they all clumped together with a milky liquid left behind. Like this:
He poured the whole mess through a strainer, keeping that milky liquid in a bowl beneath and scraping the butter attached to the whisk into the strainer. He then very gently pressed it against the strainer's mesh to remove more of the liquid.
He dumped the mass of luscious fat out onto a cutting board and sprinkled about 1/2 teaspoon finely ground sea salt onto it.
Now he kneaded it to remove more of that liquid, scraping it off the cutting board with a dough scraper. Of course, he couldn't press too hard or the butter would get too warm and begin to melt. Instead, the point was to knead it gently, scraping it off the board, to get all that liquid out of it.
Finally, he scraped it together and put it in a the little crock. In the end, it made about 2 cups of butter. I've been having it on toast every morning. It's incredible: delicate, subtle, beyond compare.
And that milky water that was left behind. Ah, well check it out here.
Mark Scarbrough | Posted on Monday, September 7, 2009 at 8:05PM | in Condiments, Fabulously Empty Calories, Ingredients butter 
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Reader Comments (4)
OK, let me get this straight. Bruce knits. Your guys make your own butter. Let me get in my horse and buggy and I'll be right over!
Wow, seriously, that's very, very cool. Homemade butter!
And we wonder why Julia Child loved butter so much? Just looking at those photos makes me smile. I wish I had a knife to smear some on a good chunk of sourdough. Mmmmm!
Yesterday I made my own butter following your recipe- superb! So doesn't compare to bought stuff. Very delicate on the tongue. There may have been a little kicking up of heels in happiness :-) So thank you
Let me tell you: I love the stuff. My advice: divide it in half and freeze one part. It goes rancid more quickly that cultured butter from the store. Thaw it overnight in the fridge. But no wonder you kicked up your heels, my friend. There's something ridiculously elemental about the whole thing.
M.