Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
To Make Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the churn
Scald the churn, then cool it with ice or spring water.
Pour in the thick cream and churn fast at first, then more slowly as the butter forms.
In warm weather, add a little cold water if the butter forms slowly.
In winter, add a little warm water if the cream is too cold.
Once the butter has formed, rinse the churn with cold water.
Collect and wash the butter
Use a perforated dasher or wooden ladle to collect the butter from the buttermilk.
Plunge the dasher into a deep tray of very cold water to free the butter.
Gather the butter with a wooden ladle.
Drain off the water.
Squeeze and press the butter.
Add more cold water.
Work the butter to remove milk.
Drain again.
Salt and shape
Sprinkle salt over the butter.
Work the salt into the butter.
Set the butter in a cool place for an hour to harden.
Knead the butter until no more water exudes and it is smooth and polished.
Shape the butter into rolls, balls, or pats.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Thick cream
- Its fat globules clump together when churned, forming the butter solids.
- Cold water
- Rinses away buttermilk so the butter keeps well and stays firm.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds flavour and helps preserve the butter by reducing remaining moisture.
The step that matters
Working the butter to remove milk. Buttermilk left in the butter turns sour and makes it spoil faster. Thorough rinsing, draining and kneading expel the liquid, which keeps the butter firm and fresh.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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