Buzz
This may not be authentic French butter, but it's pretty close! It’s incredibly simple to make and hits two out of three main points of the real deal. This quick, salty butter will bring you all the joy and memories of those wine-filled vacation days. Here’s how to create your own crunchy French butter the easy American way.
Why is French butter so special?
The fat content. Butter is butter, right? Well, almost. European butter has a higher milk fat content than American butter—82% minimum compared to 80%—and that’s important, but it’s not the only key factor. (If you’re looking for even less water content, ghee is the way to go, with 0%.) That’s the first box: butter fat.
It’s made with cultures. French butter stands out because it’s made with cultured cream. Similar to yogurt or cheese, the introduction of bacterial cultures gives the butter a delicate, distinctive flavor. There’s a hint of tanginess in French butter, and though it's difficult to describe, it also has a more robust dairy taste. This is the hardest characteristic to mimic at home, but still, it plays a subtle yet significant role. That’s the second factor: cultured cream.
Embrace the salt. The final distinction, and the easiest one to identify, is the salt. I have to admit, I have a slight obsession with salt as a personal trait. When I spread a generous amount of demi-sel butter on a chunk of bread in my Parisian Airbnb, I immediately noticed crunchy pockets of salt. “What is this?” I wondered, “A dream come true?” It certainly was. French salted butters are filled with large salt crystals, and as someone who always thought American salted butter could use more salt, I felt validated. French demi-sel butter contains 0.5% to 2% salt, while fully salted butter includes about 3% salt. Even if you’re not fond of too much salt, there’s semi-salted butter available. So many choices! That’s the third factor: crunchy salt.
How to Make Your Own French-Style Butter
Here’s your lazy American version of French butter. All you need are two ingredients: unsalted European butter and large crystal, flaky sea salt. These days, European butter is easy to find in most stores, like Kerry Gold, as well as European-style American butter, like Plugra. As long as the butter contains between 82% and 85% milk fat, you're all set.
After picking your European-style butter, leave it out for about four hours, or overnight, to soften completely. Once softened, unwrap the butter and place it into a mixing bowl. Add the flaky salt and mix thoroughly with a rubber spatula. Depending on your taste, you can use anywhere from 0.5% to 3% salt in your butter. I recommend weighing it with a kitchen scale to ensure accuracy, since flakes can vary in size and shape.
This brings to mind: The shape of the salt is important. It's best to find a salt where you can see the crystals through the package, or one that mentions 'flaky' on the label. Large kosher salt crystals can be too coarse, while regular fine table salt may make the butter too salty, but not quite the effect you're after. French butter presents shards of salt that are delicately suspended in rich, sweet cream butter. The result is a delightful crunch followed by a soft burst of salt that dissolves. Maldon sea salt works well, or look for salts with a pyramid-like crystal shape. If you prefer, you can crumble these larger crystals to create medium-sized flakes, which is what I did.
I used one stick of butter, weighing 113.4 grams, and added 3 grams of salt, creating a salt content of just under 3%. Incorporate your flaky salt, then transfer the mixture to a container and refrigerate it until you're ready to enjoy your homemade crunchy faux French butter. It's normal for the salt crystals to release moisture—salt attracts water from the air. Even true French butter behaves this way. Don't worry, it still tastes amazing.
Since we're skipping the butter churning step, I don't have a straightforward way for you to culture the cream. Some people even add buttermilk or yogurt to the cream to introduce tangy flavors when they churn their butter. That's a great approach, but maybe for another time. For now, I'll leave that out and focus on the other two key elements. Keep an eye out, though—you might stumble upon cultured butters in your area, and you could swap unsalted Kerry Gold for one of those. I've only found this one from Vermont Creamery for sale online. I haven't tried it myself, but if you have, I would love to hear your feedback on how it turned out.
