Have You Tried: Cultured Butter

I didn’t even know what cultured butter was exactly until I was watching my boyfriend, Andreas Viestad make some on an episode of New Scandinavian Cooking a few years ago. (I LOVE THAT SHOW.)

Here’s the skinny on the butter–

Lactic bacteria is added to the cream and then the thickened cream is churned into butter. (Andreas added sour cream to fresh cream and then made butter.)

Hello? Where have you been all my life cultured butter? Even the name sounds so fancy and snobby, right? “Cultured.” I feel cultured just eating it off the knife. No, I don’t do that. (Yes, I do. But just a little.)

Sorry, I get a little enthusiastic about my butter. We like the cultured butter from Vermont Butter and Cheese Company. You can get many different varieties in specialty shops or at stores like Whole Foods. (My other favorite place besides my bed and Trader Joe’s.)

Cultured butter is well, fabulous. It’s a true eating kind of butter.

Try it on homemade rolls (or store bought), crackers, toast, biscuits, in cookies or cakes (Cooks’ Illustrated recommends cultured butter for a really great pound cake–I’ll make it soon and let you know for sure.) Don’t think we wasted it on steamed veggies though–regular butter is good enough for that.

We were nice and shared it with out three-year-old daughter who informed us later that she no longer wanted the regular butter in the butter dish, but she wanted cultured butter. (Chip off the old block!)

Come next Christmas (or maybe sooner) I’m going to start experimenting with making Scottish shortbread with cultured butter. If you do it first, will you tell me how it goes and give me your recipe?

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4 Comments

  1. We get Danish cultured butter here and it’s lovely. It’s the only kind I buy now, and yes it does make excellent shortbreads.

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