DIY Butter

This is a great way to get everyone engaged with their meal. It’s dead easy, and as long as your cream is at room temperature, it only takes a couple of minutes, and the magical bit is that everyone gets thoroughly involved in their lunch. Any butter left over from the starter is easily turned into brandy butter for pudding by simply adding a shot of brandy and mixing it through. Perfectionists can make a more involved, fancy version of this if they have the time (a quick google search will find the more drawn-out recipes), but its not as much fun as doing it quickly with a sense of adventure at the table, then eating it straight away.

From The Extraordinary Cookbook

Ingredients (makes enough for 6 with extra to keep in your fridge)

300ml double cream at room temperature

3 x clean jam jars

1 clean tea towel or muslin

Method

Put 200ml of room temp double cream in each jam jar, screw the lids on firmly then hand them round and ask everyone to share the task of giving them a good shake. The cream will first change into a whipped cream, then a denser whipped cream, and then when shaken hard, it will transform into a lump of butter in a pool of watery buttermilk – it usually takes 2-5 minutes if at room temperature, but longer if cold. You can feel it and see it when it has separated – there’s a blob of butter in a pool of white buttermilk.

Rest a sieve over a bowl and place a tea towel over the sieve. Pour the contents of each jar into the tea towel and let the buttermilk drain away. Pick up the tea towel by each corner and hold them up, twisting the lump of butter around to squeeze any remaining liquid out. Unwrap and drop the butter onto a board and let everyone dig in. It keeps in the fridge for at least a week, and its great to use for toast. Less good for cooking as there’s more water in it than processed butter, so it spits a bit.