More Life 1 - Butter
Intro
Last year I went to buy butter. Usually I go to “Whole Foods” for the bulk of my food shopping. I know what you’re going to say:
“Kyle, Whole Foods is expensive”
That’s kind of true, but for most of what I buy at the store, the 365 brand usually is much cheaper than what I would get at other super markets. Anyway, I go to Whole Foods and when I go to get some butter I noticed the price. It was almost $10 for I believe 2 or 4 sticks. My eyes almost popped out of my head. I was disgusted, but I bought it anyway. However, at that moment I knew I had to make some changes. It sounds silly to get worked up over this stuff, and it probably is, but when something offends me to such a degree, I tend to reflexively look for solutions.
In this case the solution was obvious: I just have to make my own butter. Many years ago I went to the Amish Country and churned some butter with my own manly hands. At the time I thought to myself “that was fun, I could do that again” (as an aside, I have a whole story I want to animate about the amish country). Little did I know, 20+ years later, I would churn my own butter as an act of rebellion to the “Big Butter” corporate lobby
I can’t believe it’s butter!
After that ordeal at Whole Foods, I went online and bought a butter churner. This one to be specific (no affiliate links, not because I don’t want to, but I have to reapply for it and don’t want to do that right now):
I must say, that I have been pleasantly surprised at what this little guy could do. I’ve been making butter since November and I’m happy I took it up. Now to be 100% transparent, I still buy butter as the price seemed to have come down to a reasonable place.
That said, the difference in quality is pretty stark. Making butter with high quality Heavy Whipping Cream gives it such a different taste. It’s very creamy. If you’re used to supermarket butter and not fresh butter, you’d be shocked at the difference in taste. It takes maybe about 15-20 minutes to make from churning to cleaning and prepping, and you have to leave the cream out for at least 2hrs before you start churning. For about 2 cups of heavy cream you’ll get a stick of butter.
Butter believe it
There’s a few other things about this I want to speak about. I think the most important is that the freshness lasts for about 5-6 days. After that you get butter that tastes very similar to what you’d get in the supermarket or bodega. It’s still usable, just not as tasty.
Another thing is that I’ve found home made butter is: 1) better tasting at room temperature and 2) not that great to cook with. It’s not that it’s bad to cook with, but the taste isn’t noticeable as much (it’s there a little but not enough to warrant cooking with it imo). If you want to cook with butter, you’re better off buying store brands, instead of making your own. Homemade butter is king as a spread or as a compound butter.
Lastly, and very recently I learned about cultured butter. It’s butter with some of the fermented bacteria of yogurt. It’s even tastier, but it takes a lot longer to prep. You basically have to drop some yogurt in your heavy cream and let it sit out of the fridge for 36 hours. Than you throw it back in the fridge until it’s time to churn it (while still giving it time for the temp to come back down). After that the process is the same.
It has such a nice and tangy flavor to it and I’ve been using it to spread on biscuits for the last week. I don’t think I will make it as often as regular butter, but I will definitely be using it for holidays and special events.
-Until next time-