Butter

When I tell someone that we are going to make our own butter at L.2O, the usual response is “why?” It is a question we hear a lot and our answer is always if we can – if we can make it better – then why not? Being located in the midst of the “dairy land” we have access to wonderful organic cream from many small farms in the area. The cream is really the key here. Great butter is made from cream that comes from grass fed Jersey cows, which have a naturally higher milk fat content than other breeds. Grass fed cows produce milk that is high in carotene giving butter its golden color and floral notes.

Beyond the quality of the cream the other main influence on the character of butter’s flavor comes from the culturing. Culturing involves introducing a lactic acid bacteria (Flora Danica in our case) into the cream. The result of the culturing process is flavor development and acidification. This then carries over to the flavor of the butter. The culturing process is in many ways like fermenting dough for bread. Controlling the flavor is a matter of time and temperature. At this point in our development we are opting for a longer culturing period at a low temperature. This yields a butter that has a fully developed flavor with only a touch of acidity.

When the culturing is finished, the cream goes into the butter churn. We imported a Belgian butter machine via a French company complete with a huge transformer that the electricians had to install. The butter is churned or beaten until the fat solids separate, leaving what looks like yellow grains of rice and buttermilk. The buttermilk is drained off of the butter and reserved for other uses (such as La Brousse). Then the butter must be washed with ice cold water to remove any residual buttermilk. Next the butter is seasoned with fleur de sel and mixed further to give it a smooth mouth feel. The butter will be served at the table and used in the kitchen for all the cooking.

Comments

[Garrett Benedict]

I would love to hear more details on the in house butter making operation, such as what temperature you use for the culture process and how long this process lasts for?