Chukhon oil: properties and recipe

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

If you look through old cookbooks, then in the list of ingredients in recipes you can find such oil names as Provencal, Russian, Chukhonian, Parisian. What are these fats? With Provence oil is still more or less clear. The product of pressing olives was supplied to Russia from this region of France. Maybe Chukhon oil also has a vegetable and not an animal origin? In this article we will tell you all the details about this food product. In the meantime, let's define the terms.

Chukhons in the old days in Russia were called primarily Estonians, and with them all the inhabitants of the B altic states. Consequently, they got acquainted with the product from their Western neighbors in the Petrine era. But is it similar, for example, to Vologda butter - that is, simple butter, only with a high fat content? Let's take a quick look at the technological process of obtaining this food product.

How butter is made now

Churning milk is a know-how that man has mastered since the time of the Neolithic revolution. In short, the technology for producing butter looks like this. Fresh whole milk is left for a couple of hours. During this time it will loosen up. Heavy cream will accumulate on top of the krinka. And the expressed milk will remain at the bottom. The cream is collected and whipped. After some time, the fat dissolved in the liquid begins to appear - first in rare grains, then in lumps. Buttermilk, a fermented milk product similar to whey, also stands out.

If you whip the cream for a short time, then the liquid remains inside the butter, and then it is called “Sandwich” or “Tea”. The fat content of such products is 62 and 50 percent. But if you try and churn for a long time and hard, you will get "Vologda" oil. The longer the process, the less finished product (and more buttermilk) comes out. Next, the oil is washed in several waters. And, finally, diligently wring out. What does Chukhon oil have to do with this process? To do this, imagine the life of people 200 years ago, when there were no agro-industrial holdings, no refrigerators.

How butter was made in the days of Kievan Rus

Our ancestors made this product in a completely different way than today's mills. And the thing is that at room temperature, milk buttermilk, which no matter how you whip, still remains in the oil, disappears very quickly and begins to taste bitter. Therefore, the Russians treated cream in a completely different way. They arethey put the krinka with cream in a traditional oven and kept it there until all the liquid had evaporated. The resulting very oily (almost 100%) mass was cooled and then whipped with spatulas.

This ghee was called "Russian" until the end of the 19th century. This product did not cause enthusiasm among European gourmets and chefs. Although it was smaller, it also turned sour, besides it was too greasy, had an unpleasant smell (which Russian housewives tried in every possible way to disguise with onions, horseradish and garlic). In a frying pan, such fat smoked terribly, spattered and left a black residue. Chukhon butter, which has become known in Russia since the conquest of the B altic States by Peter the Great, has become a real breakthrough in cooking. But is it really an Estonian invention? Let's explore this issue.

Chukhon oil - what is it?

Let's imagine an old farmhouse. Cows give approximately 10 liters of milk per day. Cream from this amount comes out 2 liters. The churning process is very laborious, and about 30 grams of butter comes out! There are two ways out of this difficult situation. First: buy fresh cream from neighbors and churn a lot of it. This is how modern butter is produced, which in the 19th century was called "Parisian".

The second way is to collect different milk yields. After a few days, you can collect a large amount of cream. Of course, by this time they will turn sour, and you will get sour cream. But who said that it can not be churned? In fact, the technology was not invented by Estonians. The practice of whipping fermented cream was born inbowels of Western Europe in ancient times. And the name of the oil "Chukhonskoye" is just the result of the fact that the Russian people first peeped the technology from the B altics.

Does sour cream affect the taste of the product

Fresh milk and sour milk are very different. And melted (Russian) butter is from Chukhon and even more so. The latter has the usual fat content (about 72 percent). It is light yellow, almost white. In addition, this oil has a pronounced sour taste. It is good to smear it on sandwiches for fish or caviar. It should also be taken into account that the Chukhons (as well as the Swedes, Belarusians, Poles and Germans) observed sanitary requirements in the preparation of butter.

Cream was collected carefully, fermented clean. Butter churns and other equipment were carefully washed. Yes, and the product itself passed a special selection. Sour cream was beaten until a piece of butter became dense. And then he washed himself in five waters and did push-ups. As a result of such actions, no buttermilk remained inside the oil. And the one that was still held inside was already fermented. The lactic acid bacteria in it have already fermented, finished their work.

What is the specificity of sour cream butter

As you can see, this method of production extended the shelf life of the product. But nothing in the world is permanent. Milk and products derived from it spoil quickly. The Russian people have developed their own know-how - how to give rancid oil a "second life". They melted it again, which allowed for some time to remove the unpleasant taste and smell. But the thrifty B altics,the Swedes and Germans went the other way.

Since the Middle Ages, people have s alted meat and fish to prolong their shelf life. Why not do the same with sour cream? Sour and s alty tastes are a nice combination. Different methods of such processing of oil have arisen. You can add large crystals of sea s alt to the piece at the very end of the technological process. Or wash the oil not in ordinary water, but in brine. You can also keep a piece in it for several hours.

Can I buy sour cream butter now

In Europe, traditions are sacred when it comes to cooking. The technology of sour cream butter has not been forgotten. Of course, on the shelves of stores you can not find a product called "Chukhonskoe". But this oil is sold as "Yoghurt", "Sour Cream" or "Sour Milk". Of course, changes were made to the medieval recipe, not entirely beneficial to the he alth of buyers.

To prolong the shelf life of the oil, stabilizers and preservatives are added to it. Unlike sweet cream butter, Chukhon butter has a light, almost white color. It is often tinted with carrot juice to make it yellow. But now it is not at all necessary to make such butter s alty. After all, now every home has a refrigerator. Therefore, the product has a longer shelf life when properly stored.

Is it possible to make butter at home

Our ancestors churned cream for a long time in a special bucket tapering upwards with a long stick,on which a circle with small holes was impaled. This churn can be called the prototype of the mixer. But even with the help of an electrical device, you have to work hard. And a low-power mixer can even burn out. Butter - Chukhon or sweet cream - can be made in two ways: by whipping or rolling.

In Russia, by the way, they used the second method. The cream was poured into a barrel, corked, and rolled on the ground for a long time. But the principle of cooking oil at home does not depend on the method. By churning or rolling, we churn the dairy product, causing it to separate into fat and buttermilk. In the first method, pour 2 liters of sour cream into a container and turn on the mixer. We work until small grains of fat first appear, which will then stick together into lumps. According to the second method, we fill two-thirds of the jar with sour cream, close it tightly and start shaking the container.

Complete Chukhon Butter Recipe

When you notice that the sour cream has begun to delaminate (the watery part will remain at the bottom, and the fat mass will rise to the top), we will turn off the mixer / open the jar from time to time and drain the buttermilk. Do not throw away this product! It is very useful and it makes delicious pancakes. When you see the butter starting to form large clumps, take it out, scoop it up with a spatula and start kneading like dough.

Wash your hands and dip them in ice water from time to time. Throw a piece into a bowl, press it to the bottom, roll it - the buttermilk must be removed as carefully as possible. Next you needsoak the oil in ice water. When it warms up to room temperature, drain, repeat this procedure two more times at least. Unwashed oil will go rancid in a couple of days. But if you want to use it right away, you can skip this step of the workflow.

Tips

Chukhon oil can be s alted. But this is optional. You can add extra flavor to the product by adding chopped greens, garlic, grated cheese, dried tomatoes, chocolate, honey, and more. But the oil must be well washed. After mixing the main product with the flavoring, form a sausage, wrap it in cling film and put it in the freezer for several hours.