Ruhlman's Twenty (20 page)

Want to prepare your own butter? It’s simple. A food processor or stand mixer is a powerful churn. Cream behaves as it did when our forebears churned their own butter. Given enough agitation, the fat separates from the liquid (the buttermilk). The butter fat must then be kneaded to squeeze out the remaining water.

To make excellent butter, however, you can culture it, just as you can culture milk to make yogurt. The acidity from the lactic bacteria gives depth and flavor to the butter. The leftover buttermilk is tangy and delicious. If you have access to fresh cream from a local dairy, making your own exceptional butter is a snap.

Yogurt cultures are now widely available at health-food stores. Filling your stomach with these beneficial bacteria is also considered to be salubrious.

The following instructions are for making cultured cream, or crème fraîche, and then making butter from the cream. To make yogurt, rather than crème fraîche, substitute whole milk for the cream.

This is a fun exercise that lets you get a better sense of what butter is. You might want to add some salt for flavor.

4 cups/960 ml organic heavy/double cream (avoid ultrapasteurized cream)

2½ tablespoons yogurt culture

Fine sea salt (optional)

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the cream to 170° to 180°F/77° to 82°C. This helps the proteins set up. Transfer to a nonreactive container, such as a glass measuring cup. Let the cream cool to below 110°F/43°C. Add the yogurt culture and stir to mix. Cover and keep in a warm place for 24 to 36 hours; the ideal temperature is about 105°F/40°C. In the summer, I put the mixture in the sun. In winter, I put it in a warmed oven (don’t forget it’s in there and turn the oven on—I’ve killed millions of friendly bacteria this way!). The bacteria will be less effective when the temperature begins to rise above 110°F/43°C and will eventually die.

The cream should be thick, and you should smell and taste a pleasant green-apple tanginess. Allow the cream to cool to room temperature if it’s warm. The ideal temperature for churning it is between 60° and 70°F/15.5° and 21°C. Put the cream in a food processor or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk. Process until the butter fat separates from the buttermilk. This can take several minutes.

Line a strainer with cheesecloth/muslin and place over a bowl. Pour the butter and buttermilk into the strainer. Refrigerate the buttermilk and save it for another use, such as pancakes or biscuits. Squeeze the butter in your hands until you have removed most of the buttermilk. If you want to salt the butter, add about ¾ teaspoon/ 3 grams fine sea salt and continue to knead the butter until the salt has dissolved and is uniformly distributed throughout the butter.

Both the cream and butter can be stored in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 1 week.

Compound butter combines butter’s rich texture and various dynamic aromatics into a perfect sauce that’s especially good on lean meat and fish. The first recipe is for the most traditional compound butter. The second adds the vibrant flavors of lime and chipotle. The butter can be made several days ahead or can be wrapped in aluminum foil and frozen until needed.

TRADITIONAL HOTEL BUTTER

2 teaspoons minced shallot

2 teaspoons lemon juice

½ cup/115 grams salted butter, at room temperature

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (optional)

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

LIME-CHIPOTLE-CILANTRO BUTTER

2 teaspoons minced shallot

2 teaspoons lime juice

½ cup/115 grams salted butter, at room temperature

2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, seeded and minced

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro/fresh coriander

To make either butter, combine the shallot and citrus juice and allow the shallot to macerate for 10 minutes.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl with room to work the butter. Using a stiff, rubber spatula, stir, smash, and fold the ingredients into the butter. The butter should eventually get very creamy and pliable. When the ingredients are uniformly dispersed in the butter, transfer the butter to a serving dish.

If you want to create a roll of butter, spoon the butter into the center of a piece of plastic wrap/cling film. Fold the plastic over the butter to form a cylinder. Press a flat edge (a small cutting board or a baking sheet/tray) into the bottom of the roll to tighten the cylinder. Hold the plastic at either end of the butter and roll the butter to make it tight and remove air pockets. Tie the ends of the plastic together or tie a knot at either end. To maintain the cylinder shape, submerge the rolled butter in ice water; this will prevent the cylinder from acquiring a flat side when placed in the refrigerator. When the roll is firm, remove it from the ice water and refrigerate until ready to use. Cut the butter into slices to serve.

Clarified butter is a superlative cooking medium: it is delicious, and it can get very hot before it starts to smoke and break down. It’s terrific for cooking fish, meat, and potatoes.

Ghee is an Indian preparation originally used to preserve the dairy fat in a hot climate. Cream is cultured, like yogurt, then churned into butter. The butter is then cooked until golden brown, and the solids are strained out of it. It is then used primarily as a flavoring fat for dals and curries. The
dal
uses the basic method with whole butter, but ghee would make it more authentic.

The only difference between the two preparations is that clarified butter is cooked gently so that it doesn’t develop color.

1 cup/225 grams butter

To make clarified butter, melt the butter in a medium pan over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook the butter. The water will slowly cook off; skim off the white solids that float to the top of the butter and any skin that forms on the surface. When the water is cooked off and you’ve skimmed the solids, strain the butter through a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth/muslin to extract any remaining impurities. You should be left with pure yellow butter fat. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To make ghee, cook the butter as for clarified butter but don’t skim off the solids. Line a strainer with cheesecloth/muslin and set it over a heatproof measuring cup or other container. As soon as the water has cooked off, the butter fat will get hot quickly and brown the solids fast. When the butter solids are a rich, golden brown, strain the butter. Refrigerate until ready to use.

The technique for making
beurre monté
, whisking butter into a small amount of water, is the basis of beurre blancs, white wine–based pan sauces. It can also be used for a large quantity of butter, as here. The butter makes an extraordinary baste—it’s the foundation for
the lemon tarragon baste for grilled/barbecued chicken
, or it can be spooned over pan-roasting meat, such as
pork tenderloin
.

I give exact measurements, but
beurre monté
can be made with as much or as little butter as you need. No matter how much butter you’re working with, you only need a little water to get the butter melting.

1 cup/225 grams butter, cut into 2-tablespoon chunks

Put 2 tablespoons water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. When the water is hot and just beginning to bubble, add a chunk of butter and continuously swirl or whisk it in the pan over the heat. When the first chunk is nearly melted, add one or two more chunks, continuing to stir or whisk. When the butter is almost melted, add more chunks, stirring, whisking, or swirling until all the butter is melted. Cover and keep warm until ready to use.