Cultured Butter

[Gingerbread]

Does anyone here like it, use it, or make it?

I got gifted some kefir grains from a neighbor, which are awesome. I have been making kefir regularly since about April.

I now use it like i had been using yogurt

But it's a lot of kefir if you want the grains to keep active. So I decided to try to make cultured butter.

First attempt was from a pint of heavy cream and some kefir as the "starter".  30 hours of fermenting, then chill, then whip into butter. It was pretty good, but the flavor wasn't "tangy" like i expected. So it's almost gone, and I'm making some more. Currently fermented for 34 hours and is chilling overnight.  Super yellow from this cream. Here's some pics. The one with bread is Cabot butter vs what i made. Cabot is pale.



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[caribougrrl]

I've done it using liquid drained from yogurt, but never with kefir grains. It had a good tang to it, not as good as the stuff I've had in Europe, but not bad.

Related, I have not had any luck making kefir, but I think getting decent grains through the mail is my problem.

[BonitaApplebum]

I'm not familiar with cultured butter. What is the thinking behind using this instead of regular butter? Taste difference?

[caribougrrl]

I'm not familiar with cultured butter. What is the thinking behind using this instead of regular butter? Taste difference?

it tastes different (better, IMO, but not everyone likes tangy butter), also extends shelf life




also, culturing the cream means you end up with cultured buttermilk as well as cultured butter... and cultured buttermilk is way better than fresh buttermilk

[RioG]

I've done it using liquid drained from yogurt, but never with kefir grains. It had a good tang to it, not as good as the stuff I've had in Europe, but not bad.

Related, I have not had any luck making kefir, but I think getting decent grains through the mail is my problem.

Tell me more.

When I make homemade yogurt I don't drain it because I don't like the idea of the waste.  But this sounds like a use for that liquid?

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[caribougrrl]

Tell me more.

When I make homemade yogurt I don't drain it because I don't like the idea of the waste.  But this sounds like a use for that liquid?

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it's been a while since I've done it, so you might want to do a bit of verification research, but essentially: mix some yogurt whey into whipping cream, let it sit on the counter to culture (like a few hours to a day), churn it to butter (choose your own adventure: stand mixer, shake it in a jar, convince children to shake it in a jar, get an actual butter churn), drain off the butter milk and use that for all your buttermilk needs, press wash the butter and press all the liquid out, Bob's your uncle.

you can use yogurt whey to culture homemade mayonnaise too... increases still-good-to-use life by a good bit

you can also use yogurt whey in place of water in baking or for marinating meat... or other ways you might use buttermilk... but if you are making buttermilk, well it's better IMO tan yogurt whey for all those things.

[BonitaApplebum]

This thread is now making me think about making yogurt. I haven't done it in ages!

[picote]

This thread is now making me think about making yogurt. I haven't done it in ages!

We do it weekly in the instant pot—if you haven’t tried it for yogurt, it’s super easy.

Now I want to make butter. And cheese. I’m still jonesing for that automated cheese maker I didn’t get last year because I have too many hobbies.

[Gingerbread]

I've done it using liquid drained from yogurt, but never with kefir grains. It had a good tang to it, not as good as the stuff I've had in Europe, but not bad.

Related, I have not had any luck making kefir, but I think getting decent grains through the mail is my problem.

Yes, I haven't done that but I know it's another way to. I don't use the grains directly in the cream because I think it would be a huge pain to strain them out, I just use some of the kefir itself in the cream. The last time I made it, I let the cream sit out for 48 hours before chilling and then beating into butter. I also found out it needs to warm up a bit from fridge temps to actually turn into butter when you whip it (whip it good). I think the suggest about 60*f but I was at about 55*

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[Gingerbread]

Also, I really don't taste the difference. I mean, maybe because I'm used to the flavor of kefir, it doesn't really register, but I presume there are some health benefits from the cultures themselves. I do love using the local cream which is the only one I can find without additives like gellan gum or carageenan and mono and diglycerides. I just want cream. But for whatever reason that is twice the price. I think because Butterworks Farm is small and needs to charge that much to be viable. I found a suggestion on reddit that trader joes might have plain cream but no such luck.

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