AMID the surging cost of living, butter has become one of the most costly items in the weekly shop. Now it seems many of us are taking matters into our own hands and churning out our own efforts with online recipes spreading like…well…a dollop of butter on a slice of bread.

 

Have you seen the price of butter lately!

Indeed, if you have a 750g pack of Lurpak Spreadable in the fridge - setting you back £7.25 or a 1kg pack, which regularly sells for more than £9 - it is now regarded as a sign of modern-day luxury, suggesting the challenging times are fortunately passing you by.

 

For those who aren’t splashing the cash?

Many are turning to making their own. And although the very idea conjures up an 18th century farm setting, with cow keepers collecting the milk and perhaps a cook churning the cream in a Victorian kitchen, social media has leapt on the case and making your own butter is a modern craze.

 

It is, however...

...truly an ancient product, thought most likely to have been created almost by accident. In her book 'Butter: A Rich History', former New York pastry chef, Elaine Khosrova, documents that butter has been around for more than 9000 years and "likely began as an accident - some chilled milk shaken around in a sack on the back of an animal on a bumpy trail" but it "quickly became a staple”. 

 

Of course…?

Real butter is a dairy product containing up to 80 per cent butterfat, which is solid when chilled and at room temperature, made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk to separate the butterfat from the buttermilk.

 

And now?

Facebook and TikTok are full of social media chefs and influencers trying their hands at making their own, in part to find a way around the hefty in store prices, with videos of their efforts garnering millions of views with “#howtomakebutter” trending.

 

The basic idea…

…is to tip a carton of double cream (that has no added ingredients) into a container - or a mixer - to shake for about 10 minutes and it forms into butter. In one video - from recipe developer ‘slaterchef’ on TikTok - he says “Butter is getting expensive, it’s time to make your own…three times cheaper, 10 times more delicious”, and shows the process that ends with draining the buttermilk, and washing the butter in a cold ice bath, before slathering it on some toast. He adds that it keeps for “weeks in the fridge”. 

 

Staples are up worldwide?

In the US, the cost of butter has risen 22.2% in the last year alone., while a report from the British Retail Consortium found shop prices are increasing at their fastest rate in at least 17 years in the UK, with key items including butter and vegetable oils seeing the biggest price surges.