You had me at bacon butter...

I try to read Mark's Daily Apple most days. A while back, i saw a post that i just had to try. It's instructions on making your own homemade cultured butter. Apparently cultured butter is WAY better than the regular stuff, and homemade is better than regular.

I remember making homemade butter as a kid. We'd pour heavy cream into a mason jar, and then shake it until it formed butter. I figured, hey, i can do that again. Then i read the article further, and saw that Mark recommends adding flavors to your butter. He goes on to specifically mention bacon butter as an option. Now that, i've got to try.

If you're following along at home, you can find the original entry with instructions here

Here's how it all went down....

Mark says we can use either cultured cream, or creme fraiche. If we can't find creme fraiche, we can make it at home. I can't find it, so i follow the instructions to make it. It's 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, and 4 tablespoons of cultured buttermilk. Then, you let them sit out at room temperature for betwen 8 and 24 hours. I plan ahead, but then forget about it, so mine sits out for 25 hours. According to Mark, after some time the cream will get really thick. I take this to mean it'll get universally thick. Instead, i get a thick crust along the top about the same consistency of marshmallow fluff. It's still cream underneath.

I'm a little concerned that i've botched it already. But, i boldly plunge on with the experiment. Step two: Whip it. Whip it real good. Mark says we can put it in a jar and shake it, or run it through a food processor. Ambitious as ever, i decide to shake it. But, i've still got to chop the bacon to add later. So i toss the bacon in the mini-chopper (brilliant things, everyone should have one).

At this point, i notice that it's a bit later at night than i thought it was. I decide that it'll take way too long to make a whole batch by hand. I decide to use the processor. But i don't want to get out the big processor, i'm going to just toss the creme fraiche in the mini chopper with the bacon. So, in goes the bowl of cream and chunks of more cream. (i should note that Mark says the bacon goes in at the end, but it's late, and i'm too excited about bacon butter to read the instructions carefully). Then, i'm supposed to process for about 3 minutes, until the cream starts to thicken into butter, and seperate from the buttermilk. I'm making a half batch, so it doesnt take me 3 minutes. It takes about 30 seconds.

I pour out the buttermilk, process some more, and then when i've poured off all the buttermilk i can, i scrape the bacon buttery goodness into the bowl.

Next step, add some cold water, which won't mix with the butter, it'll stay seperated and help rinse out the last of the buttermilk. This is the point where i realize i've bungled it again. I'm rinsing away precious bacon crumblies. That's sacrilege. Really.

After several more rinses, i called it done, transferred it to a jar, and it was ready for the fridge.

It's beautiful, isnt it? I havent tasted it yet. I'll be sure to let you all know how it tastes... It better be good. It's bacon and butter, how can it be bad?