Recipe: Smoked butter

Smoking food often has at least a slight drying effect - an interesting way to incorporate a  smoked flavour into a dish without changing the food's natural properties is to smoke the cooking medium, in this case the butter.  Fat does a great job of carrying flavours, so you can really smoke the butter well, then just use enough to get the smokiness you want, then use regular butter the rest of the way.  If you are like me and don't have a smoker at home, but have a smoking gun, the same effect can be achieved by sealing the butter in a bowl and pipe smoke in several times and mixing the butter up a few times along the way.  The last time I did this was at work, so I got to just throw the butter in the smoker and come back to it later.  Easy.

You will need:

1lb / 454g       unsalted butter (room temperature)

smoker

Method:

 - put the butter in a tray on an upper rack in the smoker (to catch the most smoke and stay cooler)

 - put another tray of ice on a lower rack as a heat shield (optional)

 - smoke for at least 2 - 3 hours

 - remove from smoker

 - if some separation has occurred, put the butter in a bowl in cold water and whisk until it re-emulsifies

 - store in an airtight container until use