Oak-smoked butter
Two ingredients. Everything that matters is process.
Sixth version
Start your own line from any of Ida's 6 versions. Their recipe becomes your v1; what you do from there is yours, and their name stays on it. Reading needs no account; making it yours does.
v6 · 17 Sept — Hand-salted after the churn
The changes in v6
Hand-salted after the churn
Close to the best
Close to their best. Worth keeping.
What v6 taught
“Better. You can feel the crystals.”
So far
Six versions since October 2025. The best yet is v4. Last cooked 4 weeks ago.
Ingredients
double cream
flaky salt
handfuls oak chips
What's been moving
Both halves have moved: the double cream most among the ingredients, and steps 1, 2 and 3 in the method.
Never touched: 8g flaky salt · 2 handfuls oak chips
Method
01
Cold-smoke the 1l cream over oak chips for 30 minutes, off the heat entirely
30 min1l double cream2 handfuls oak chips
02
Rest the smoked cream overnight in the fridge — the smoke settles and stops tasting like a bonfire
1l double cream
03
Churn 9 minutes, until it breaks and the buttermilk runs clear
9 min
04
Wash in ice water three times, until the water runs clean
05
Work in the 8g flaky salt by hand, not in the churn
8g flaky salt
How it runs
1h 04on the table
Work in the 8g flaky salt by hand alongside 01 · Cold-smoke the 1l cream over oak chips for 30… — 5 min sooner
- 1:04On the table
What it's taught its cook
Churn, minutes
The last 2 landed on the same churn every time.