How to Make French Butter With American Salt Flakes
It won’t give you true French butter, but honestly, it comes pretty darn close. This is extremely easy to do, and for the real thing, two of the three descriptive boxes are checked. This faux French butter is sure to bring you joy and wine-soaked reminders of vacation days gone by. Here’s how to make crispy French butter the lazy American way.
What’s so good about French butter?
Fat content. Butter is oil, right? Almost. European butter has a slightly higher butterfat content than American butter—a minimum of 82% versus a minimum of 80%, respectively—and while this is important, it is not the only deciding factor. (If you want less water content, you can simply choose ghee which has 0% water content). This is field number one: butterfat.
He has cultures. Traditional French butter is special because it is made from fermented milk cream. Bacterial cultures introduced into butter, like yogurt or cheese, give the butter a subtle but refined taste. French butter has a slight flavor and, forgive my shortcomings in this description, has a stronger milky taste. Again, this is the hardest thing to replicate at home, but it’s still a subtle team player. Box number two: fermented milk cream.
Use salt. The last difference and the easiest to spot is the salt. I’m probably a little in love with salt, just as a character trait. As soon as I spread half-butter on a piece of bread in my Paris Airbnb, I discovered chunks of crunchy salt. “What is this?” I thought: “Dream come true?” Really. Salted butter in France is coated with large salt crystals, and for someone who always thought American salted butter could use a little more salt, I felt vindicated. French semi-salted (partially salted) butter contains 0.5% to 2% salt, while fully salted butter contains about 3% salt. Yes, even if you are shy about salt, buy yourself semi-salted butter. What options! This is the third box: crunchy salt.
How to fake French butter yourself
I promised you lazy American-French butter and you will get it. You only need two things: unsalted European butter and coarse flaky sea salt. These days, European butter is more widely available in grocery stores such as Kerry Gold , as are American European -style butters such as Plugra . If your butter is between 82% and 85% milk fat, you’re in good shape.
If you choose European-style butter, let it sit for four hours or overnight until it softens completely. Unwrap it and place the butter in a bowl. Add flake salt and stir with a rubber spatula. Depending on your preference, you can add 0.5% to 3% salt to the oil. I suggest doing this in grams and be sure to use a kitchen scale as the flakes can vary in shape and size.
This reminds me: shape matters. Try to find salt that you can see through the packaging to determine its shape, or if the packaging says “flaky.” Something like large crystals of kosher salt will be too hard, and regular fine table salt will make the butter salty, but that’s also not exactly what you want. French butter gives you shards of salt lost in a sea of sweet butter. You get a gentle crunch and salt that dissipates. Try maldon sea salt, or salt that has a pyramidal crystalline structure. You can always crumble the pyramid structure to make medium-sized flakes, which is what I did.
I used one 113.4 gram stick of butter mixed with 3 grams of salt for just under 3% salt. Add flake salt. Then place it in a container and refrigerate until you’re ready to use your new crispy faux French butter. Please note: It is not unusual for the salt pockets to become watery. Salt is hydrophilic and absorbs moisture from the air. It still tastes great, and so does real French butter.
Since we don’t churn the butter, I don’t have an easy way to grow the cream. I’ve read that some people churn their own butter with buttermilk or yogurt to give it a savory flavor. This is commendable, but maybe another time. Instead, I’ll skip that flavor and rely on two other factors. But be careful, you may find some cultured butter where you live and can substitute unsalted Kerry Gold. I’ve only seen this one from Vermont Creamery for sale online. I haven’t tried it yet, but if you have, I’d love to hear how it turns out.