FOOD NEWS
The Specialty Butter Jet Tila Always Picks Up At The Grocery Store
By Carly Weaver
Chefs are connoisseurs of good quality food, so knowing what to get from a grocery store and having go-to products is part and parcel of being good at their job. For celeb chef and restaurateur Jet Tila, the must-buy item on his grocery list happens to be cultured butter.
Butter is simply pasteurized cream that’s churned until it reaches its semi-solid form, but cultured butter requires an extra step before that cream is churned — fermentation. “Good bacteria” (live cultures) are added to the cream once it’s pasteurized and left to slowly ferment it into a thick, tangy, aromatic substance; then, after lots of fermenting, it’s churned into butter.
Tila explains that the process “creates an amazing cheesy tang in the butter and incredible flavor,” with an extra creamy texture and a complex flavor that’s slightly acidic. Cultured butter also has lower moisture content and a higher smoke point than regular butter, which produces better results when baking — especially in flaky items, pie crusts, biscuits, or shortbread.