Discover the many guises of this wonderfully versatile ingredient – from beurre noisette to buttermilk and ghee
How to make butter
The first step in making butter is to agitate cream. There are several ways to do that – in a wooden butter churner (a traditional method), in a bowl with a whisk, or even just shaking in a sealed jar.
As the cream is agitated, the butter modules begin to cling to each other until they form large clumps, eventually forcing the fat and liquid to split from each other. Next, muslin or clean hands are used to squeeze out most of the remaining buttermilk to create a firmer butter. For salted butter, 1-2% salt is added, after which the butter is then shaped into blocks or cylinders.
Clarified butter
Clarified butter is made by melting butter very gently in a pan. The heavy milk solids sink to the bottom and any impurities float to the surface, leaving pure butter in the middle. Carefully skim off the top layer, then pour the clarified butter into a separate pan, leaving the milk solids behind. Clarified butter has a much higher smoking point because the milk solids that would usually burn have been removed.
Brown butter
This is made by deliberately caramelising the milk solids in butter. Like the process for making clarified butter, here the butter is heated so that the milk solids sink to the bottom of the pan. But, on this occasion, they need to caramelise and catch. This gives the butter a toasted, nutty flavour – which is why it is called beurre noisette in France (literally, ‘hazelnut butter’).
Cultured butter
This is butter that has been made from cultured cream. As with all fermentation, you harness the power of bacteria and yeasts (often from unpasteurised soured cream, yogurt or crème fraîche) that feed on sugars in the cream. Those cultures produce acid as a by-product, and it’s that acid that is whipped into regular butter to make cultured butter. The result gives a pleasing tang that cuts through the fatty richness of butter.
3 easy flavoured butters to make at home:
Either keep these butters covered in bowls in the fridge, or roll into sausage shapes, wrap well and keep in the freezer. Simply slice off a frozen disc of butter whenever you need it.