Smoked Butter

Butter, a wholesome simple food, it couldn’t be simpler to make, no additives just basic stuff, now how can that be bad for you?

First separate the Cream from the Milk, if you are lucky enough to have access to real, un-messed with milk then good for you!

But most of us separate cream from milk by selecting the right carton from the supermarket chiller. And here is where you need to take your reading glasses, thickened cream usually has something like gelatine added, Pouring cream will have 15-35% butter fat, “Double” (or “Heavy”) cream gets up around 45% butter fat, read the label! For making Butter it’s the high Butter Fat content that you want

Pour your cream into a shallow dish, I add a bay leaf, some mixed herbs, a little pepper and a dried Ancho (remove the stalk) but you don't have to, I just like the extra flavour kick.

Place the dish in your smoker and cold smoke for a couple of hours, stir the cream halfway through.

I use a cup of wood pellets in my Weber Kettle, this will give me two hours of cold smoke.

Remove the bay leaf and chilli (if using) from the Cream

Pour the cream into a food processor or mixer.

Whip the cream like you would for whipped cream, but keep going past the whipped cream point but pay attention, you want to catch it when it just separates or “breaks”. It’ll get messy when this happens, so if you use a mixer, put the guard on, or cover it in plastic so you don’t have to wash your kitchen down!

You can see in the last photo how the globules of butter separate from the buttermilk

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Pour off the Buttermilk (keep it, this is crazy good for making pancakes!)

Residual buttermilk in the butter will turn it rancid in a matter of days, so it's essential to remove all the buttermilk you can, by washing the butter in ice cold water.

Clump the butter globules together squeezing out all the buttermilk you can.

Place your clump of butter into a container of icy cold water and work the butter by squeezing it underwater to force the buttermilk out.

Repeat this process with fresh water two or three times, until the water is no longer cloudy

You don't have to salt the butter but it will help it keep.

Just massage a teaspoon of salt into your butter.

I use a Sushi Mat to form the butter into logs which I then wrap in greaseproof paper for storage

Nothing left to do now but enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Cook a good steak and drop a dollop of the smoked butter on top!

MMmmmm!

If you have the time, watch the Video Tutorial