Dairy queens: Butter and cheese offer a simple taste of luxury

Quality control

Making smoked butter is not hard, according to Kus. His is a cultured butter, with salt added. “There are a few jobs [to do], but it’s not very complicated,” he says. “There’s the smoking process – we smoke the milk that we make the butter from – and then we cool it. We freeze the bowl we churn the butter in, we churn the butter and then leave it in the fridge with the buttermilk for two days.”

 

If you know what you’re doing, it’s a straightforward process – and Kus does it every day. The pub, which started making its own butter about a year ago, uses about three or four kilograms of butter a week. So is there a cost-saving element to it as well as an increase in quality?

 

Kus doesn’t think so. “Cost-wise, if we had to buy the basic-level butter it would be pretty much the same price,” he says. “It’s just a thing for chefs, maybe an ego thing – ‘we make our own butter’! But it gives us better control. This is the product we want, the consistency we want. It’s not about controlling costs, but having a better product.”

 

The butter is deployed in one of the pub’s flagship dishes: Cumberland sausage served with smoked mash. The mash is made not just with smoked butter – “We’re not stingy when we’re adding the butter,” says Kus – but also smoked milk, and the potato is baked rather than boiled. “It’s a different level of mashed potato,” adds Kus.

 

It’s also a smart combination of two trends – a desire for classic flavours combined with an equal desire to try new things. “People don’t just want comfort food, they want to try something different,” Kus says.

 

And in Notting Hill, which may be one of the most competitive parts of London when it comes to high-class food, such innovation is crucial. “There’s a lot of new restaurants and great chefs,” says Nati. “You need to push a bit harder, to give a little bit more than people expect – and then they come back. We have a great crowd of regulars who come here because of the food.”

Ireland’s call

The Mall Tavern’s smoked butter demonstrates how good it is at carrying flavour, as Irish chef Anna Haugh, who runs Myrtle in Chelsea, points out. “It is a carrier of flavours like no other,” she says. “Whether we smoke it, infuse it with spices, or burn it for nutty undertones, it can bring so much depth to a dish.”

 

Haugh uses Irish butter, which is enjoying a huge boom in popularity. According to Bord Bia, Ireland’s food board, there’s a variety of reasons, but chief among them is the quality of the milk it’s made from, the result of Ireland’s temperate climate and rich soils. Cows spend 240 days spent grazing outdoors and eat a 95% grass diet.

 

“Irish butter’s unique flavour and texture are increasingly sought after as consumers demand high standards for taste and provenance,” says David Kennedy, head of dairy at Bord Bia.

 

Irish cheese, too, is equally highly thought of, thanks to artisan cheeses such as Cashel Blue. “Our cheese’s unique flavour comes from milk produced by cows grazing on lush Tipperary pastures,” says Sarah Furno, co-owner of Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers. “It’s this local, natural environment that gives Cashel Blue its distinct taste.”

 

British cheeses are equally impressive, according to Steven Edwards, chef owner of Etch by Steven Edwards in Brighton. With Christmas coming up, he suggests a cheese board of Burwash Rose from Stonegate in Sussex (“it has a lovely firm texture and is slightly floral in taste”), Ashlynn goats’ cheese from Worcester and a French interloper, Brillat-Savarin. “It is full in fat and just really creamy and has a lovely cultured butter taste that for me is a little bit nostalgic,” he says.

 

Funnybones’ Manchego cheese churros

 

For those seeking a different approach to cheese, Funnybones suggests its macaroni cheese bites or Spanish Manchego cheese mini churros. “Add both to a sharing platter alongside some breaded jalapeño peppers, filled with smooth cream cheese to offset the spicy kick of the peppers,” says Tom Styman-Heighton, development chef at Funnybones. “Serve alongside a trio of dips and upsell extra sauces to maximise profits.”

 

Back at the Mall Tavern, meanwhile, there are plans in place to make it even easier for customers to enjoy their smoked butter. “We are thinking about packaging the butter and selling it from our on-site deli fridge,” says Kus. “We have great hams from Italy and Spain as well as tuna and cheese, so why not include our butter as well?”

 

Suppliers

Barber’s www.barbers.co.uk

Burwash Rose www.thetraditionalcheesedairy.co.uk

Cashel Blue www.cashelblue.com

Funnybones www.funnybones.co.uk

Kerrygold kerrygold.com/uk

 

Photo: Dariia Belkina/Shutterstock