cultured butter

[Guest guest]

Cultured butter is a way of making butter. It's how Wilder's mom would

have done it and everyone else before butter making process was commercialized.

The pioneers were not splashing sweet cream around with a paddle, but actually

clabbered cream. I learned this about 7 months back and it blow my mind. Since

childhood we were all taught fresh sweet cream was in those tall wooden

containers. What a lie! For some reason I took this very personally. And I need

to get involved in some pioneer days celebration or something to get the world

back on track with the truth. One of these days I'd like to be part of a pioneer

days at Silver Dollar City in Branson. Another thing to add to my " To Do " list.

What I do is get raw milk, skim off the cream and add about 1/4 cup of

buttermilk to each quart of cream. Then let it sit at room temp for 24 to 48

hours (usually the longer of the time) at which time it will have gotten very

thick and is about the equivalent of sour cream. (very tasty on potatoes) Then

place it in the frig to cool. After a couple hours or overnight I beat it with a

mixer or food processor until little clumps of fat form. It's looks like when

you over whip heavy cream when making whipped cream. At this time place a flour

sack towel into a colander, pour the whipped sour cream into the colander and

begin to rinse it with a stream of cold water. Cold water so the butter doesn't

melt while you are working it with your hand. If the cream is

fresh there will be a bit of buttermilk, but hardly any if the cream is a few

days old when you skimmed it. You will notice quickly that cultured butter is a

very yellow fat compared to store bought sweet cream butter and it's no wander

they add yellow food colorings. It is a rich gold color. The first time I made

it I would have sworn coloring had been added if I hadn't made it myself.

Continue rinsing and kneading the butter with cold water until all the

buttermilk is out. An other words, rinses until the water comes out clear.

Buttermilk in it will cause it to spoil sooner. At this time I highly suggest

adding some salt as it protects the butters flavor and keeps it from going

rancid. Then pack it into a pretty little bowl and enjoy.

This whole process can be done without adding the buttermilk by clabbering. This

basically means that at the right temp the bacteria naturally in raw milk will

culture it in 24 to 48 hours. I add buttermilk because I want to insure I get

that flavor. Occasionally I've gotten a flavor I didn't like as much when just

letting it go on it's own. It may not have been the flavor so much as raw cows

cream is very sensitive once it is off the milk and if it has sat stored in the

frig before being made it will develop a stronger flavor then I like. I've had

raw milk in my frig for a week and the cream is still fresh. And I've taken

cream off milk from the morning it was milked and after 48 hours stored in the

frig it tastes old. Something in the milk keeps the

cream fresh tasting . Basically I am not sure if the off flavor is because I've

stored the cream without the milk or that it sat at room temp without help

(added buttermilk). I'll need to do an experiment on that next time.

I have made cottage cheese by letting it clabber and tasted no ill flavor.

Hmmm.....

This website has lots of info.

http://www.chowhound.com/writing/butter.html

Now about culturing made butter; I don't know. I've never tried it and am not

sure if it's possible, but is worth trying.

This was probably more then enough info, but I hope it helps.

Rondi

>Rondi:

What is a good recipe for culturing your own butter and what type of butter

do you use? raw or organic, pasteurized from one of the large organic butter

companies?

Thanks.

>Sophia

[Guest guest]

You can also buy cultured butter (if you can't or don't want to make your

own). Organic Valley is a company that sells both cultured butter and

non-cultured. Many health food stores (and some other stores) sell it,

but they may not carry both varieties. You may have to request it.

Bonnie in NC

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[Guest guest]

--snip--

>

> This whole process can be done without adding the buttermilk by

clabbering. This basically means that at the right temp the bacteria

naturally in raw milk will culture it in 24 to 48 hours. I add

buttermilk because I want to insure I get that flavor. Occasionally

I've gotten a flavor I didn't like as much when just letting it go on

it's own. It may not have been the flavor so much as raw cows cream is

very sensitive once it is off the milk and if it has sat stored in the

frig before being made it will develop a stronger flavor then I like.

I've had raw milk in my frig for a week and the cream is still fresh.

And I've taken cream off milk from the morning it was milked and after

48 hours stored in the frig it tastes old. Something in the milk keeps

the

> cream fresh tasting . Basically I am not sure if the off flavor is

because I've stored the cream without the milk or that it sat at room

temp without help (added buttermilk). I'll need to do an experiment on

that next time.

I have noticed this too. If I remove the cream from the milk and

leave in fridge it turns old tasting. If I try to sour without adding

culture, it doesn't sour properly. I make butter by leaving raw milk

out to clabber, then remove the soured cream from the top and churn.

The milk under the cream seems to ensure a good culture.

The yellow color comes not from the culturing but from the

beta-carotene in grass fed cream. Stores add coloring " seasonally " to

make grain/hay fed cow's butter look like spring/summer-grass-fed.

Culturing not only reduces the lactose in the finished product, it

also makes butter easier to make by shortening the churning time.

Portland, OR

[Guest guest]

THANK YOU!!! I have one of those!

>

> <Haecklers wrote...

> I'm also not sure how to get the cream off the top - sure it rises but you

can't scoop it off the top of a regular small-mouthed milk jug - or decant it

either for that matter. Maybe I'll look around for a gravy separator to use.>

>  

> What I do is pour my raw milk into a gallon sun-tea jar that I got at

Wallyworld for six bucks. Overnight the cream rises to the top and I drain the

skim milk out from the tap at the bottom the next day.

> Bill

>

>

[Guest guest]

I put my raw milk in half gallon wide mouth mason jars. when the cream rises, I

scoop it off the top with a gravy ladle. I use the remaining milk (not really

skim milk but skimmed milk - LOL) to make kefir or yogurt with. they get thick

even though they are made with skimmed milk.

my local farmer makes cultured butter using the sour cream/buttermilk culture

from Dairy Connection. he makes sour cream with it too but calls it creme

fraiche.

http://www.dairyconnection.com/sourcream.htm

>

> I've been reading stuff about making your own butter that said homemade is

always better tasting than bought. The kids wanted a project and liked butter

so we decided to make some and use my mesophilic dairy culture to culture it (I

have one that is supposed to impart a buttery flavor to brie). We got just store

cream because it was the only one that wasn't ultra-pasturized and let it sit at

room temperature for various amounts of time while the culture did its work.

>

> Making the butter with an electric mixer was really easy. We used a

well-washed soap mold to mold it and will keep it in the freezer until it's used

up (just a few days the way they're eating it).

>

> Next time I'll splurge and use the raw milk - that is $7 a gallon lately and

nobody here likes skim milk! I guess I'll use the remaining skim milk to make

paneer. I'm also not sure how to get the cream off the top - sure it rises but

you can't scoop it off the top of a regular small-mouthed milk jug - or decant

it either for that matter. Maybe I'll look around for a gravy separator to use.

>

> I got the starter at www.thecheesemaker.com - they have a lot of starter

cultures there. I'm really curious about trying the other mesophilic cultures

to see what flavors they give the butter.

>