French Cultured Butter

There are so many ways to elevate your sourdough bread, but one of them is as simple as elevating what you put on your sourdough toast, and for me, my friend, it starts with butter. I spent over a year of my life in France, and every single time, I fall in love all over again with their butter. I love its crunchy little salt crystals and the many different types you find right at the grocery store, something we truly can’t get in Canada or the United States.

The good news? You can make it at home with this easy method. It doesn’t take much, and it’s essentially a three-ingredient recipe. All you need is cream, Greek yogurt, and salt. That’s it. You culture the cream, whip it, remove the excess water, and you end up with this gorgeous French-style cultured butter. It’s absolutely divine.

What exactly is cultured butter, and why is it worth making?

Cultured butter is simply butter made from cream that has been fermented before churning. By letting the cream sit with a live culture, in this case Greek yogurt, the natural bacteria develop lactic acid, giving the finished butter a deeper, slightly tangy, almost nutty flavour you just don’t get from standard butter. This is the secret behind the beloved European butters. Making it at home means you control the flavour, the salt, and the freshness, and it costs a fraction of the imported stuff.

Why these ingredients and no others?

– Heavy cream (500 g): the base of your butter. Choose the highest fat content you can find (35% or more) for the best yield and richest result.
– Plain Greek yogurt (30 g): your culturing agent. The live bacteria ferment the cream and build that signature tangy depth. Full-fat or 0% both work.
– Salt (to taste, start with 2 to 3 g): added after churning, it seasons the butter and helps it keep longer. Flaky salt gives that lovely French crunch.

How long should you culture the cream, and does it change the flavour?

You could whip plain cream into butter, but culturing is what takes it from good to extraordinary. Here’s the beauty of it: you can culture your cream and yogurt anywhere from 12 to 72 hours, depending on how tangy you want your butter. The longer it sits, the sourer and more complex it gets. I culture mine for about 18 hours, which I find is the sweet spot, tangy but not sharp. It also fits my schedule perfectly: I start the culture overnight, and by the time I’m ready to chill and whip it a couple of hours later, it just works with my day.

Why do the salt and cream you choose matter so much?

With only a few ingredients, quality really counts here. For the salt, reach for a high-quality flaky sea salt, think Maldon, or anything good you can find locally. This is truly what gives the butter its lovely, almost luxurious flavour, and I especially love Maldon for those crunchy little salt crystals that set homemade butter apart from anything at the store. As for the cream, if you can find local cream, even better. That said, I make my butter with regular full-fat grocery cream all the time and it works beautifully, so don’t let that stop you. If I had the choice, I’d get fresh cream straight from a farmer, but it’s simply not something I have available right now, and grocery cream still delivers gorgeous results.

How do you get the texture just right?

– Use very cold cream once cultured: chilling before whipping helps the butter come together cleanly.
– Don’t stop whipping too early: keep going past whipped-cream stage until the butter solids separate from the buttermilk.
– Remove as much buttermilk as possible: any left behind makes the butter turn sour faster.
– Rinse in ice water until it runs clear: this is the key to butter that keeps well and tastes clean.
– Press firmly to work out hidden water pockets before shaping.

How do you store cultured butter and how long does it keep?

Well-rinsed and pressed, your cultured butter keeps in the fridge for about 2 to 3 weeks in an airtight container. Because it’s cultured, it will slowly grow tangier over time. For longer storage, wrap it tightly and freeze it for up to 6 months, then thaw in the fridge overnight. If your butter tastes sour too quickly, it usually means a little buttermilk was left behind, so rinse more thoroughly next time.