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Simple Cultured Butter

Five ways to flavour homemade culture butter - garlic, herb, basil, lemon, cinnamon honey
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It’s easy and fun to turn whipping cream into butter. Homemade cultured butter tastes divine. Serve it plain and salted or flavor it with herbs and garlic. See the section above for more flavor suggestions.

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 cups whipping cream (heavy cream)
  • 2 Tbsp culture (see notes for options)
  • Scant 1/4 tsp salt, to taste

Instructions

  1. Mix the whipping cream and the culture in a large jar. Leave it on the counter to culture for at least 12 hours.
  2. When you’re ready to make butter, start by whipping the cream. You can do this with a hand mixer, food processor, or stand mixer. You can also make butter by shaking the jar of cream. (See the section above for details on mason jar butter).
  3. The cream will whip and thicken so that it seems like nothing is happening, but keep whipping. After about 10 minutes the butterfat will separate from the buttermilk. (See photo above).
  4. Keep whipping until all the buttermilk has separated and the butter has formed into a ball.
  5. Scoop the butter out into a bowl. You want to extract as much buttermilk as possible to prevent the butter from going off. Start by pressing the butter into the bowl with the back of a spoon. Pour any buttermilk that comes out of the butter back into the jar. When you’ve squeezed out all the buttermilk, rinse the butter with cold water, then press the butter out with a spoon again.
  6. Rinse the butter with cold water a second time, and press out any remaining buttermilk.
  7. After all the liquid has drained away, sprinkle on some salt and any other flavors (see the section above for suggestions). Mix the salt into the butter with the spoon and put it into a container for serving and storage.
  8. Unsalted butter needs to be stored in the refrigerator. Otherwise, salted cultured butter can stay at room temperature for up to a week.

Notes

  • Unpasteurized cream will naturally ferment without any additional culture. However, store-bought cream can be cultured with milk kefir grains, cultured sour cream, or cultured buttermilk. You can even use yogurt, but it’s easier to use a culture that doesn’t need to be kept warm.
  • This recipe is designed for a 1-quart mason jar worth of butter. Two cups of cream make about 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of buttermilk.
  • The buttermilk is AMAZING. My kids make butter just so they can drink the buttermilk! Alternatively, you can use the buttermilk for baking or pancakes. Fresh buttermilk is much thinner and sweeter than store-bought buttermilk, so it may not work in typical “buttermilk” recipes.

Find it online: https://www.fermentingforfoodies.com/homemade-cultured-butter/