Cultured Butter

Cultured butter runs eight to twelve dollars for a small block at a specialty grocery. In most Amish dairy households, it’s just Tuesday.

Ingredients

  • 1 pint heavy cream (about 470ml)
  • 2 tablespoons cultured buttermilk, plain full-fat yogurt, or sour cream with live cultures
  • Pinch of salt

Method

  1. Stir the cultured product gently into the cream. Cover with a cloth and leave at room temperature 12 to 24 hours.
  2. The cream will thicken slightly and smell mildly tangy.
  3. Churn — a mason jar works: shake 7 to 10 minutes until the fat separates into butter and buttermilk.
  4. Pour off buttermilk, knead out remaining liquid, and salt if desired.

Rich, complex, and deeply flavorful in a way premium store butter can’t match — at roughly the cost of the cream.

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