Making Homemade Butter
Making homemade butter is fun, easy and delicious. All you need is heavy cream and a mason jar.
1. Purchase quality heavy cream. Let the cream sit out for 12 hours before making. This allows the cream to ferment/sour.
3. As you are shaking, you will first see that the liquid clings to the sides the jar. Keep Shaking.
5. Open the jar and you can see the butter. The liquid is buttermilk.
2. Shake jar in a firm downward motion. (Like holding a hammer with two hands and hammering a nail)
4. After about 3 minutes of shaking you will start to feel something solid sloshing around. The liquid doesn't cling to the jar anymore.
6. Pour out the buttermilk and save to use for baking or drinking.
7. Rinse off the excess buttermilk with water. Rinse and drain until water runs clear.
8. The butter is ready to use. Add salt if desired. Yum!
Le Diane - Paris
Restaurant: Le Diane is a Michelin-starred restaurant overlooking the lush gardens of the luxury Hôtel Fouquet's Barrière, just a short stroll from the Champs Elysees. Le Diane offers an extraordinary culinary experience in French Gastronomy.
Chef: Brittany native Chef Jean-Yves Leuranguer was the son of a cook. He grew up around food knowing from an early age that he would be a chef. After his schooling, he interned at some of France’s finest hotel restaurants and the internships led to jobs. In 2003, Chef Leuranguer was appointed executive chef at the renowned Fouquet's restaurant. Three years later he became head chef of the kitchens at Hotel Fouquet's Barrière. Today he oversees the cuisine for five restaurants, including Le Diane.
Butter: Le Diane serves Maison Bordier butter three ways: unsalted, smoked and salted, and flavored with seaweed.
Commentary: Chef Leuranguer remembers that as a child in Brittany, his parents would send him to get butter from a local farm. He enjoyed watching the farmer pumping the handle on the churn and beating the buttermilk from the butter.
In his childhood home, the family ate only salted butter (typical of Brittany). When he attended cooking school, however, he encountered only unsalted butter. He couldn't help but salt it. When he began working in Paris, he first encountered pasteurized sweet butter, but still preferred the home-churned butter of Brittany. In time, though, the dairies in Brittany changed their cows’ diet from grass to corn silage. When Leuranguer returned home to visit his parents, he found that the taste of the local butter had drastically changed and he could no longer enjoy its new stronger flavor.
LE DIANE
Fouquet's Barrière Hotel
46 Avenue George V, 75008 Paris, France
33 1 40 69 60 60
Saaga - Helsinki
Restaurant: Saaga is located in the heart of Helsinki, Finland’s capital city. A traditional Lappish restaurant, Saaga offers the genuine taste, atmosphere and experience of Lapland. The name Lapland refers to the land inhabited by the Sami people, indigenous to northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. In the Sami language, “Saaga” means “story.” Saaga’s chefs co-operate with several small Lappish and Finnish food producers to guarantee good-quality and specialized ingredients. Their menu offers northern delicacies such as bear, reindeer, mushrooms, Arctic char (cold-water fish), and Lappish cheese. Even the tableware is authentically Lappish: wooden mugs, cast iron pots and wooden platters. Saaga gives its guests an authentic Lappish experience without the long trip to Lappland.
Butter: Saaga’s waiters serve juniper berry butter with homemade barley bread and potato rieska -Lappish flat bread with fresh cubes of Juniper berry butter.
Commentary: “Butter,” say the Saaga chefs, “is a base for everything! It gives the right taste, texture and richness to food.”
Saaga
Bulevardi 34, 00120 Helsinki, Finland
358 9 7425 5544
West - Vancouver
Restaurant: Recognized by critics as the ‘jewel in Vancouver's culinary crown,’ West restaurant serves contemporary coastal Canadian cuisine. West delivers seasonal ingredients in artfully realized classic dishes. Recent awards include the 2014 Four-Star Restaurant Award from Forbes Travel Guide and the Wine Spectator’s 2013-2014 'Best of' Award of Excellence.
Chef: Raised in Calgary, Alberta, Quang Dang moved to Vancouver in 1998 to study engineering. Part-time restaurant jobs revealed his interest and talent at cooking and lead him to pursue a culinary career. Quang Dang began as West’s junior sous chef, moved on to work in some of Vancouver’s finest restaurants, and eventually returned to West as executive chef in 2011.
Butter Details: West’s kitchen staff whip butter with extra virgin olive oil and Maldon salt. They form the butter into little domes, top them with salt, and serve them on chilled glass plates with crusty, freshly baked rolls. Because the recipe includes olive oil, diners can easily spread the butter. The rich combination gives guests a memorable first impression.
Commentary: Chef Dang has two lasting childhood memories of butter. The first involves making cookies with his mother and creaming the butter with an electric mixer. The second memory is of sitting at the breakfast table, spreading butter on warm crumpets, and watching it melt into the crusty crags and voids.
Chef Dang still uses many of the butter cooking techniques he learned in culinary school. “I don't think that I could live without brown butter,” he confesses.
West
2881 Granville Street, Vancouver, British Columbia
(604) 738-8938
L'Enclume - Cumbria, UK
Restaurant: L’Enclume, a two-starred Michelin restaurant, opened in the historic village of Cartmel, England in 2002. Chef and owner Simon Rogan chose to avoid the restraint of a set menu and instead to use fresh, seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. He and his staff gather many of the raw ingredients from Chef Rogan's farm just hours before cooking and serving. The appropriately named L’Enclume--French for ‘the anvil’-- is situated in an 800-year-old former smithy (blacksmith shop).
Chef: Simon Rogan is one of the UK’s most accomplished and well-respected native chefs. His relationship with the land and extreme commitment to local and seasonal produce shows admirably in his award-winning cuisine. Chef Rogan’s many accolades include “Best Restaurant in the UK” by the Good Food Guide in 2014 and “Chef of the Year” and “Restaurateur of the Year 2013” by The Catey Awards. A culinary dynamo, Chef Rogan has many ventures including one pub, five restaurants, a culinary think tank, and a 12-acre farm. How does he do it all, and do it so well?
Butter: L'Enclume serves an unpasteurized cow's milk butter, which is unsalted, whipped until light and fluffy and served on a large gray pebble.
Commentary: A butter-lover for as long as he can remember, Chef Rogan remarks, “I ADORE butter--it is my favorite thing to eat.” But he can't have just a little butter, he confesses. “I have to have lashings of it!”
L'Enclume
Cavendish Street, Cartmel, Nr Grange over Sands, Cumbria, LA11 6PZ UK
44 15395 36362
SPQR - San Francisco
Restaurant images: Ed Anderson
Restaurant: Michelin-starred restaurant SPQR is a Northern California restaurant inspired by Italian cuisine and wine. An acronym for Senatus Populesque Romanus, SPQR translates to “The People and Senate of Rome” which was the emblem of the Roman Empire. SPQR is set in a comfortable and inviting atmosphere in San Francisco’s Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood. SPQR creates it’s dishes from the perspective of an American Chef who has Italian heritage, and has trained in Italy, but at the same time is very aware of where he is living and what resources are around him.
Chef: As a New Jersey teenager, Matthew Accarrino got interested in cooking while watching cooking shows and working in local restaurants, first as a dishwasher, then as a cook. He earned a degree in Culinary Arts in 1998, trained in Italy, and worked for some of America’s finest chefs. In 2009 he joined the team at SPQR as Executive Chef. During his tenure there, Chef Accarrino has won many accolades. Chef Accarrino was named “2014 Best New Chef” and “the mad genius of handmade pasta,” by Food and Wine. In 2012 Chef Accarrino released his first book, SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine.
Butter: For the weekend lunch, SPQR serves a butter quenelle (oval dumpling shape) with a blend of edible flowers— calendulas, marigolds and cosmos. Chef Accarrino mixes the flowers into the butter and sometimes adds honey, flowering sage, and/or bee pollen. This beautiful compound butter comes with pecorino, buttermilk biscuits and homemade jam. Delicious!
Recently, SPQR has been experimenting with buffalo milk butter. The buffalos are fed a good diet, and that leads to pure milk and white, bright, clean-tasting butter. Chef Accrarrino looks forward to offering buffalo butter to SPQR patrons in the future.
Commentary: Chef Accarrino considers butter a luxurious ingredient. He fondly recalls his parents making toast with cinnamon sugar and butter and how he savored the rich taste. “So, great!” he says.
SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California 94115
(415) 771-7779
Atelier - Ontario
Restaurant: Ottawa restaurant Atelier offers a 12-course tasting menu of “New Canadian” food based on modern culinary techniques and technology.
“Plate after plate of mind-blowing dishes,” writes Adrian Brijbassi of Vacay.ca.
Chef Marc Lepine and his team create a culinary experience that averages three hours in length.
Chef: After growing up in Kincardine, Ontario, Marc Lepine finished three years of culinary school and also earned his sommelier certification. Chef Lepine spent time working in Toronto, as well as cities in France and Italy. In Ottawa, he accepted executive chef positions with Algonquin Park’s Bartlett Lodge and the Courtyard Restaurant, twice earning the Canadian Culinary Federation’s ‘Ottawa Chef of the Year’ award. In 2008, Chef Lepine decided to open his own restaurant. While working toward the Atelier’s launch, Chef Lepine worked at Chicago’s Alinea Restaurant with Chef Grant Achatz.
Atelier opened in 2008 to great acclaim. The Globe and Mail called Lepine one of Canada’s “most original chefs.” In 2012, he won the Canadian Culinary Championship in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Butter: Atelier’s waiters serve two innovative butters: The first is powdered butter, made by freezing butter in liquid nitrogen and then grinding it to a powder. Explains Chef Lepine, “When it warms to room temperature it remains in powder form and can be spread like soft butter.” The second is whipped butter in a white tube that easily squeezes out the soft, rich topping.
Commentary: Chef Lepine’s first memory of butter is how it smelled while melting in a cast iron pan as his mother cooked crepes.
Atelier
540 Rochester Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 4M1
(613) 321-3537
Bibendum - London
Restaurant: Located in the heart of London’s Chelsea neighborhood, Bibendum is the signature restaurant for the historic Michelin House. Opened in 1911, the Michelin House was the headquarters for Britain’s Michelin Tyre Company Ltd. “Bibendum,” a.k.a. the Michelin Man, is Michelin Tyre’s hallmark symbol. Michelin introduced their bulging anthropoid tire stack to the public in 1894; by now the Michelin Man is one of the world's oldest trademarks.
Michelin moved its headquarters in 1985 and Conran Design Group began extensive restorations on the interior of the building. They restored many of the most prominent original features. Reopened in 1987, the newly refurbished Michelin Building was now home to Bibendum, winner of “The Most Consistently Excellent Restaurant” at the 2008 Tatler Louis Roederer Awards. Bibendum is famous for serving classic French food with a strong British influence.
Chef: Matthew Harris grew up in Brighton, a town on Britain’s south coast where his parents ran a French restaurant and a wine, brandy and spirits company. From an early age, Matthew cultivated a love for all things gastronomic. He trained in several European restaurants and in 1987, started as Bibendum’s first Chef de Partie. Matthew Harris replaced his mentor Simon Hopkinson as head chef. Chef Harris prides himself on using the best-quality seasonal ingredients to bring a contemporary edge of flavor and style to his dishes.
Butter: Bibendum’s waiters serve French unsalted butter in custom-made dishes bearing the image—naturellement!—of Monsieur Bibendum himself.
Bibendum
Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London, England SW3 6RD
020 7581 5817
L2O - Chicago
Restaurant: L20 Restaurant, located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, is famous for it’s modern, seafood cuisine. Awarded two Michelin Stars in 2012, L2O appropriately stands for “Lake to Ocean.” L2O’s kitchen has two 100-gallon custom saltwater fish tanks. One tank mimics the English Channel and the other, the Pacific Ocean, and they provide L20’s guests the freshest seafood available. L20’s chefs employ the highest-quality ingredients while using classic and contemporary cooking techniques to create artful dishes.
Chef: Matthew Kirkley, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, earned a degree from the Culinary Institute of America and started his professional career working in top restaurants in Philadelphia (Striped Bass), Chicago (Seasons Restaurant and NoMI) and Las Vegas (Restaurant Joël Robuchon). Returning to Chicago in 2008, Chef Kirkley was part of L2O’s opening team but left to work at other restaurants before rejoining L2O in 2011. Chef Kirkley started as Chef de Cuisine but was promoted to Executive Chef later that same year.
Butter: Chef Kirkley maintains an extremely refined butter program at L2O to compliment the restaurant’s renowned bread service. He uses Amish butter from the Minerva Dairy in Ohio. Chef Kirkley creates a long, luxurious ribbon of butter, and perches it atop a specially designed ‘peek-a-boo’ butter dish.
Commentary: “I can't imagine a world without butter,” says Chef Kirkley.
L2O
Closed December 2014
