Whey butter ✦

Beurre de petit-lait

What it is

Whey butter is what Cheddar dairies made from the cream that rose off drained whey, a farmhouse perquisite in Somerset, Devon and Lancashire rather than a product anyone set out to make. The whey has already been acidified by the cheese starter, so the cream churns out tangy and keeps residual lactose that milk butter does not have.

In the kitchen

That lactose makes it brown and burn noticeably faster than milk butter — start a beurre noisette a full minute early and pull it at the first hazelnut smell. Its salty, cheesy edge belongs on radishes, boiled potatoes and toast rather than in pastry.

Goes with

Radish Potato Cheddar Apple Walnut Honey

Same species

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

Also used with

Rennet

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us