How to Make Cultured Butter at Home.

Last updated on January 31st, 2024 at 07:49 pm

Learn how to make your own cultured butter and traditional buttermilk at home with this easy-to-follow cultured butter recipe.

Why Make Cultured Butter?

Cultured butter made with live bacteria is tangy, creamy and pretty easy to make. My personal favourite is to smear it on 100% whole wheat sourdough. We also love to place a pat of butter on top of sourdough pancakes and let the heat of the pancakes gentle melt it into a smooth tasty butter blanket. This butter also helps elevate many foods such as a plate of lightly steamed asparagus, roasted fish, a flakey biscuit and even a dry-aged steak.

If you have found this recipe chances are already making a common fermented food in sourdough bread and know that they can have many health benefits.

The Best Cream for Cultured Butter

Most cream in Canada has a fat percentage between 35-40%. For the best quality butter try to source the highest fat cream possible. If you can find cream over 40 even better. High fat cream yields better and tastes the best. The best place to look for quality cream is usually at natural food stores, direct from the dairy/creamery, farmers markets or food co-ops. If you live in Ontario you can check Sheldon Creek Dairy for a high-fat cream. Sourcing 100% grass-fed dairy will also help you produce a rich yellow-coloured butter.

Whipping cream often contains gums or stabilizers that can cause problems during the culturing (fermentation) stage.

Homemade Buttermilk

One of the amazing benefits of making your own butter is that you will also make your own homemade buttermilk as a byproduct. You can use buttermilk to make sourdough buttermilk pancakes, biscuits, muffins, sourdough cornbread, waffles and more.

What You’ll Need

While you can make cultured butter simply by placing the cream in a jar and shaking it, it is much faster to use a food processor or stand mixer with a whisk attachment.

• Non reactive glass or plastic container to culture the cream
• Whisk
• Cheesecloth or tea towel*
• Fine mesh sieve
• Stainless steel mixing bowls
• Rubber spatula

* Fats are porous and can absorb unwanted flavours easily. Be sure to use a clean towel to cover your butter while culturing.

Cultured Butter Specs

Note: The yield will vary depending on the fat % of the cream, how well you scrape down your bowls and how well you wash the butter after churning.

Ingredients:

Note: You can use keffir, yogurt, sour cream, cream fraiche or several bacteria cultures like flora danica or aroma B culture. Cultures for Health is a great place to source a wide variety of cultures.

How to Make Cultured Butter

1. Pour the cream into a non reactive container and whisk in the buttermilk.
2. Place the cheesecloth or tea towel over the container and allow to sit undistrubed at room temperature for 24-36 hours. You can taste the cream to decide how tangy you like it.
3. Place the cultured cream in the fridge until well chilled, at least two hours but I like to do it overnight.
4. Put the cream into the stand mixer with whisk attachment or a food processor. Be careful not to overfill either as the cream will expand while whipping.
5. Start to beat the cream at a medium speed. As the cream gains volume slowly increase the speed.
6. Beat the cream until it seperates. Small lumps of butter fat will become visible and the butter cream will seperate. You should hear the liquid splooshing around in the mixer.
7. Line a bowl with cheesecloth and place the butterfat into the center. Pick the cheesecloth up spining it to close it and putting the butter into a tight ball. Use your hands to squeeze as much buttermilk out of the butter as possible. You can also use the back of a rubber spatula to press out the buttermilk.
8. Move the butter to a bowl of ice water and continue to wash out the butter fat by squeezing the butter in your hands then washing it in the water. You can use two bowls alternating between the two until the water is no longer cloudy. Washing the butter in cold water helps keep it firm while working it and rinse out any remaining buttermilk.
9. If adding salt, place the butter back into the stand mixer and add the desired amout of salt. Mix until combined.
10. Wrap the butter in wax paper, cling film or place it into a sealed glass container.
11. Store the butter in the fridge for 2 weeks or the freezer for up to 6 weeks.

Note: Make sure to properly remove the buttermilk from the butter as this will help increase the cultured butters shelf life and reduce spoilage time.

Salted Cultured Butter

Salt is a great way to preserve your butter and make it taste great. I like to use Maldon salt as it has a great taste but you can use any non-iodized salt. I have found that between 1.5-2% is a good amount of salt to add to the butter. I usually stay on the lower end of this as I often add butter to my bread or toast and then finish it with more salt. The textural contrast and the little salt bursts are what I am after.

To salt your butter simply take the total weight and multiply it by the percentage of salt you wish to add. For example if your yield is 500 grams of butter and you wish to add 1.8% salt you would be adding 9 grams. To calculate your salt quantities you can do the following:

500 X 0.018 = 9 grams of salt

To add the salt, you can mix it in by hand or place it back into the stand mixer with a paddle attachment and mix until just combined.

Cutured Butter Recipe Card:

How to Make Cultured Butter at Home.

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• Author: Matthew James Duffy

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Description

Learn how to make your own cultured butter and traditional buttermilk at home with this easy-to-follow cultured butter recipe

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

1000 grams / 1L heavy cream (35% or higher)

100 grams / 100ml buttermilk

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Instructions

1. Pour the cream into a non reactive container and whisk in the buttermilk.
2. Place the cheesecloth or tea towel over the container and allow to sit undistrubed at room temperature for 24-36 hours. You can taste the cream to decide how tangy you like it.
3. Place the cultured cream in the fridge until well chilled, at least two hours but I like to do it overnight.
4. Put the cream into the stand mixer with whisk attachment or a food processor. Be careful not to overfill either as the cream will expand while whipping.
5. Start to beat the cream at a medium speed. As the cream gains volume slowly increase the speed.
6. Beat the cream until it seperates. Small lumps of butter fat will become visible and the butter cream will seperate. You should hear the liquid splooshing around in the mixer.
7. Line a bowl with cheesecloth and place the butterfat into the center. Pick the cheesecloth up spining it to close it and putting the butter into a tight ball. Use your hands to squeeze as much buttermilk out of the butter as possible. You can also use the back of a rubber spatula to press out the buttermilk.
8. Move the butter to a bowl of ice water and continue to wash out the butter fat by squeezing the butter in your hands then washing it in the water. You can use two bowls alternating between the two until the water is no longer cloudy. Washing the butter in cold water helps keep it firm while working it and rinse out any remaining buttermilk.
9. If adding salt, place the butter back into the stand mixer and add the desired amout of salt. Mix until combined.
10. Wrap the butter in wax paper, cling film or place it into a sealed glass container.
11. Store the butter in the fridge for 2 weeks or the freezer for up to 6 weeks.

Notes

Make sure to properly remove the buttermilk from the butter as this will help increase the cultured butters shelf life and reduce spoilage time.