salad days - a lil culture

wherein denys walks you through his latest fermentation-oriented kitchen project

¡hello friends! welcome to another edition of salad days. i’m gonna try a less-is-more approach for this fortnight’s newsletter, so, without further ado, let’s dive in!

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The other week one of my boys/longtime subscribers sent over an IG DM with a tantalizing kitchen project idea that I immediately filed away for future reference in my food inspo folder. And after being reminded of that idea on a trip to what is quite possibly my favorite store in Houston, I set out to procure the ingredients to try my hand at making ~cultured butter~ :

This heavy cream label literally has all of the buzzwords I was looking for in a dairy product for this project: Low Temp Pasteurized, Pure Cream, Non-Homogenized, Minimally Processed, No Additives or Preservatives, and v importantly, GO TEXAN.

This crème fraîche has a pleasingly short ingredient list¹ and a label with a bunch of fun buzzwords as well, including Crème d’Isigny Appellation d’Origine Protégée, indicating that it comes from the Manche region of northwest France.

I added one healthy tablespoon of crème fraîche to my pint of low-temp pasteurized heavy cream:

and left the cream to get a lil culture and ferment at room temperature for six days.

I checked the cream every evening, and each time I opened the container I was absolutely floored by the aromas arising from the fermentation process.

After allowing sufficient fermentation and thiccening to occur over six days, I threw my cream into the fridge for an overnight chill session. Then I poured my chilled cultured cream into my modern-day butter churn and let it rip:

I used some cheesecloth to squeeze all that tangy buttermilk from my cultured butter, leaving me with the best-tasting, butteriest butter I’ve ever had in my life:

I slathered some² of it on a slice of rustic bread, sprinkled on a lil³ flakey salt, and had a simple divine snack that singlehandedly skyrocketed my blood pressure and cholesterol:

In terms of kitchen projects, I think this was an absolute winner in terms of end product when compared to the minuscule amount of effort involved. From this point, I never want to not have some personally-cultured butter on hand in my fridge, and don’t be surprised if I bring some to you next time you invite me over to a dinner party. And now, I’ve got a cup of amazing buttermilk in my fridge to work into some recipes in the near future!

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Thanks as always, friends/subscribers, for scrolling through another edition of salad days! If you know someone who you think needs some cultured butter in their life, please smash the below button to share salad days with them:

and if someone sent this to you and you liked what you saw, use the below button to subscribe:

Have a good rest of your salad day!

-denys

1. Ingredient: pasteurized cultured cream

2. okay an unhealthy amount

3. okay a lot