Unpasturised Butter in London

[IndolentAgain]

Does anyone know where I could get unpasturised butter in the London/South East area ?.

Had some recently and loved it.

Thanks

[Tim Hayward]

Does anyone know where I could get unpasturised butter in the London/South East area ?.

Had some recently and loved it.

Thanks

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The French Butter guys at Borough have started bringing in an unpasteurised butter with socking great lumps of Guerande salt in it. Lovely stuff - damned if I can remember the name though.

[helenah]

Neals Yard Dairy. They have several British unpasteurised butters.

[IndolentAgain]

Thanks for the tips Tim and Helenah. Will check them out asap. Might have to make a special trip to borough just to take a look.

[Soapy Joe]

La Fromagerie (Moxton St, Marylebone or in Highbury) usually have some too.

I buy mine from Neal's Yard too.

[dougal]

Is pasteurisation of butter the real question?

Almost all commercial butter is 'cultured butter' - made using cream 'ripened' either with an added (bacterial) culture, or by souring naturally.

The culturing provides the flavour that most folk call "buttery".

The other stuff is 'sweet cream butter' - made from cream that hasn't progressed towards yoghurt (or *cultured* buttermilk). This has a very mild 'creamy' taste... and is *very* easily made at home - even from standard supermarket pasteurised *double* cream.

Make it yourself and you can also salt to taste...

[IndolentAgain]

After much searching we obtained four butters for review.

Top - clockwise - la Fromagerie - unsalted, la fromagerie salted - unpasturised, Real France - Salted from Borough Market, Organic unsalted from Neals Yard.

In taste the La fromagerie came last - lovely creamy texture with smooth flavour easily better than anything in the supermarket, next was the real france - the salted butter provided a fantastic taste on the palete with rich creamyness and a good lingering after taste.

The runner up was the salted unpasturised butter from la fromagerie - This was a truely excellent butter with a strong flavour. The aftertaste was probably the best of the selection. There was a richness to go with the creamy flavour which lifted it over the other 2 butters.

The winner was an easy selection - The organic butter from Neals Yard Dairy. Not quite as creamy as the other but with good structure. This butter has an almost caramel like flavour and if salt were added would provide an almost unworldly experience.

A big thanks for all those who helped in the search.

[broadway]

Is pasteurisation of butter the real question?

Almost all commercial butter is 'cultured butter' - made using cream 'ripened' either with an added (bacterial) culture, or by souring naturally.

The culturing provides the flavour that most folk call "buttery".

The other stuff is 'sweet cream butter' - made from cream that hasn't progressed towards yoghurt (or *cultured* buttermilk). This has a very mild 'creamy'  taste... and is *very* easily made at home - even from standard supermarket pasteurised *double* cream.

Make it yourself and you can also salt to taste... 

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Is this the case? I was under the impression that UK butter is generally uncultured whereas in continental Europe it is cultured.

[dougal]

Almost all commercial butter is 'cultured butter' - made using cream 'ripened' either with an added (bacterial) culture, or by souring naturally.

The culturing provides the flavour that most folk call "buttery".

...

Make it yourself and you can also salt to taste... 

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Is this the case? I was under the impression that UK butter is generally uncultured whereas in continental Europe it is cultured.

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I gather that's what McGee says. IMHO, (whisper it), he just might have it the wrong way round.

But *do* try it for yourself!

Beat cream till it splits.

Rinse it.

Extract some water, add some salt, mix it in and shape the butter.

Easy! Really!

In detail: -

Get some fresh (therefore "sweet") double cream. (OK "whipping" will do, but not single)

Beat it in your mixer. Until its "whipped" - then slow down the mixer, but keep whipping until it "splits" properly.

Then strain off the liquid (its one of the various things that get called "buttermilk", so keep it if you like). Fine muslin in a colander would probably be ideal, but a new J-cloth should do.

Then it needs to be rinsed with *cold* cold water, until the water runs clear. You can do this by returning the solids to the mixer bowl with a little cold water for a minute's further mixing. Repeat 3 or 4 times with fresh water. The last rinse should be pretty clean water.

Now you just need to squeeze out some excess water, add salt to taste, mix it in and shape the block of butter (making a cylinder in clingfilm is probably easiest).

Absent a pair of wooden "butter hands" to pat it around with, a rolling pin (and a cold slab) will do fine for a first try.

You need to rinse out residual milk because that affects the keeping qualities (not that it'll last long). However, if you can bear to keep it, note how the taste changes with passing time. As the milk 'cultures' itself, so the taste gets more "buttery".

You've just made sweet cream, uncultured butter.

Initially its very creamy.

And very different to normal British butters. Much more Beurre d'Isigny.

Generalising wildly, uncultured butters are pale and creamy. The more yellow and "buttery" the more 'cultured' the butter. You can blend sweet and cultured ("cheesy") creams. Even some scalded cream. Cultured buttermilk. Up to you. Roll your own!

A fun experiment for a rainy evening when the supermarket has some 'reduced to clear' double cream! (or when you over whip the cream accidentally)

The salt probably wants to be from 1/2% to 2% of the weight of the butter, and as evenly distributed as you can manage - get it uneven and the final butter will show yellow streaking, a fault should you enter the County Show!

By squishing the butter, you are aiming to get the water content down to about 10% or so.

Do try it. Its easy!

[Andy Fenn]

Thanks for the taste test and pics IndolentAgain. I recently bought some of that Neal's Yard butter, and it's incredible. I think it's actually "clotted cream butter". How that differs, and how that's made, I have no idea.

Anyone?

[chrisp]

Great little review, and very interesting, thanks IndolentAgain. That bread you have there looks good too - where is it from?

[dougal]

..{Neal's Yard butter} ... I think it's actually "clotted cream butter". How that differs, and how that's made, I have no idea.

Anyone?

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Clotted cream is made by heating cream, and evaporating off some of the water, to increase the fat content. Added: the heating changes the flavour slightly. Above, I mentioned "scalded" cream as one option.

As I said above, you should be able to make butter from any cream (or cream mixture) that can be 'split'...

Edited November 12, 2007 by dougal (log)

[IndolentAgain]

Great little review, and very interesting, thanks IndolentAgain. That bread you have there looks good too - where is it from?

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Its a stonebaked one from Waitrose - didnt have enough time to make my own. For supermarket bread I find its got good taste when fresh and lasts well.

[grahamR]

From the picture, the organic butter is the clotted cream butter from Neals Yard (the deep yellow round with an animal shape on the top). It's lovely stuff.

Excellent inspiration on DIY butter making. Thanks, Dougal.

[Fateyes]

Hi,

Just notice this thread - just to make it clear, none of the butters that NYD sells are unpasteurised.

They sell Moorhayes Farm Whey butter - the whey is put through a pasteuriser.

They sell Clotted cream butter, which is in the photo above - the cream is pasteurised.

They sell Longmans farm butter, which is a sweet cream butter - again, pasteurised.

Finally, they also have Berkely Farm organic guernsey butter - pasteurised!

Cheers

[Jon Tseng]

But *do* try it for yourself!

Beat cream till it splits.

Rinse it.

Extract some water, add some salt, mix it in and shape the butter.

Easy! Really!

Alternately chuck some good quality double cream in an ice cream machine* and leave it to churn for 15 mins. Hey presto.

* Use a cheap one and dont chill the bowl in the freezer.

[dougal]

... I recently bought some of that Neal's Yard butter, and it's incredible. I think it's actually "clotted cream butter". How that differs, and how that's made, I have no idea.

Anyone?

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Have you been asking around?

Because, coincidentally, yesterday... an eGullet photo demonstration of making clotted cream!

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=109933

So now you can make your own butter, using your own clotted cream!

[dougal]

Inspired by the clotted cream thread, I did a spot of searching, and I discovered a butter making thread (which heads for DIY butter, and how to 'culture' the cream - if wished).

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=80669

There's a link given to this (food processor) butter-making tutorial, which explains (as I've tried to do) that it really is a trivially simple process...

http://www.milkpail.com/hbuttr.htm

...

Pour the {cool (55/60F, 13/15C) heavy/double} cream into the processor and process. You will see a whipped-cream stage in a matter of seconds and shortly after that the first break will occur: The foam stage breaks to liquid buttermilk and butter. Stop and pour off the liquid into a measuring cup. Save it to use for salad dressing, baking or drinking.

Continue processing for a few more seconds. More buttermilk will leak out. Pour it off again. Work the butter with a rubber spatula to squeeze out more buttermilk. At this point you have ready-to-use butter.

You can go one step further and wash the butter with very cold ice water (33 degrees F / 0.5C). ...

It continues with a cultured butter recipe...

So, no excuses the next time you see a deal on cream...