CULTURED BUTTER
From a kitchen in a Somerset quarry, a food entrepreneur and his team are creating delicious oven-ready dishes with a focus on sustainable practices
One way to make butter is to add salt to cream and churn it until the butter solids and buttermilk separate. However, if you want cultured butter, the cream needs to be fermented. This preserves it (in place of the salt) and gives it a lovely, slightly tangy flavour – it’s how many continental butters are traditionally made.
Preparation 30 minutes Fermentation 18-36 hours Makes about 200g
250ML DOUBLE CREAM
50ML NATURAL WHOLE MILK YOGURT, KEFIR OR KOMBUCHA
¼ TSP SEA SALT
ICED WATER, FOR ‘WASHING’ THE BUTTER
A 500G JAR WITH A LID CHEESECLOTH
1
Put the cream and yogurt (or kefir or kombucha) in the jar and whisk to combine. Cover with a clean cloth and let it sit at room temperature (18-20°C) for 18-36 hours; it should thicken and start to taste rich and tangy. Seal the jar and refrigerate for 1 hour to chill and thicken.
2
Put the thickened butter mixture into a food processor and process at a high speed until the yellow curds begin to separate from the white buttermilk – this will take 2-3 minutes. You will see a lump of butter coming together.
Line a fine-meshed sieve with a double layer of cheesecloth and put it over a large bowl, leaving plenty of cloth overhanging. Slowly pour in the mixture so that the buttermilk passes through and the butter curds are held in the cloth. Let them sit for 1-2 minutes. Gather up the ends of the cheesecloth and wrap them around the butter, pushing the curds down and into a ball. Twist the cheesecloth and squeeze to extract as much buttermilk as possible. Pour the buttermilk into a separate container and reserve for another use.
Transfer the butter to a clean bowl and pour on 100ml iced water. Using a spatula, ‘wash’ the butter ball by folding it over on itself and pressing down to extract any residual buttermilk; drain this off. Repeat this washing 4-5 times. The butter will start to harden, at which point your hands may work better than a spatula.
Put the butter on a clean tea towel and pat to remove excess moisture. Knead a few times more. Pat dry, then sprinkle with a little salt and knead to mix it through. Wrap the butter in baking parchment. Chill and use within a month.
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BY RACHAEL DE THAMPLE (BLOOMSBURY, £16.99)
Charlie Bigham at his Somerset base; his oven-cook Fish Pie is a perennial favourite; the brand’s award-winning Quarry Kitchen in Dulcote has been designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible
Set against Dulcote’s colour-changing limestone cliffs, surrounded by 15 acres of wild-flower meadow, stands an extraordinary RIBA award-winning building known as Charlie Bigham’s Quarry Kitchen. Butterflies hum as peregrine falcons screech overhead. On the building’s angled roof sit solar panels generating renewable energy, while elsewhere an industry-leading recycling system pumps clean water back into nearby rivers. “Sustainability is incredibly important to us. Food businesses are notoriously energyintensive, so we have a duty to do the right thing,” founder Charlie explains.
A TASTE OF HOME
In case you were in any doubt, Charlie Bigham is indeed a real person. “When I answer the phone to customers, they’re surprised I exist,” he says. In 1996, after quitting his consultancy job to sample the tastes, colours and aromas of India, he launched a range of premium ready meals from his kitchen, with the aim of enabling people to enjoy home-cooked food they haven’t had to prepare from scratch. The decision to put his name to the brand was intentional. “I’m in our kitchens every day. We handmake each dish in small batches so we can control every aspect of the process and ensure quality. It’s real food made by real people.”
FOOD WITH HEART
With the planet in mind, the company sends zero waste to landfill and its packaging is ripe for repurposing – the Chicken Tikka Masala’s wooden tray can live on as a seed planter, while the reusable pie dishes make ideal water bowls for hedgehogs. And when it comes to giving back? “We donate a percentage of our profits to charity, and this year we’re proud to support the Wells Food Festival. I love a food market. There’s such joy in walking around, eating and taking home a bag of goodies. Celebrating local artisans is a passion of mine; after all, that’s how I started.”
Celebrate Somerset’s finest artisan food and drink, and access exclusive shopping discounts, at the Wells Food Festival, brought to you virtually by Charlie Bigham’s this October. For more information, visit wellsfoodfestival.bighams.com