Smoked butter

Beurre fumé

What it is

The smoke has to be cold, under about 30 °C, or the butter simply melts and separates in the chamber, so producers either smoke the cream before churning or hold finished blocks over smouldering wood at low temperature. Smoking the cream gives the rounder result, because the fat takes up the phenols evenly, while a smoked block carries most of its flavour in the outer few millimetres.

In the kitchen

Melt it and spoon it over — do not fry in it, since the milk solids catch and the smoke turns to ash. It overwhelms delicate things: excellent on scallops, monkfish or beetroot, ruinous on scrambled eggs or a béchamel.

Goes with

Scallop Potato Leek Mussel Celeriac Cod

Same species

Abura-kasu Amourettes (spinal marrow) Spider steak Bastourma Flank steak Beef

Also used with

Iburigakko

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