Abernethy Butter

Abernethy Butter

FOOD AWARD

BY RUSSELL ALFORD AND PATRICK HANLON

Everybody made butter on their farms – that’s what you did, you made it for your own use and it was the done thing.’ Allison Abernethy remembers growing up on a family farm with that little metal churn in the corner, a staple in almost all rural Irish households. Allison and her husband, Will, are continuing custodians of a near-lost tradition of handmade butter in Ireland, having begun producing Abernethy Butter around 10 years ago and growing it into the award-winning brand it is today, with a variety of flavours as well as handmade fudge and lemon curd. A unique dairy product, commercially unlike any other in Ireland in terms of process, their small-batch, slow-churned, hand-rolled butter shaped with wooden pats is made using Draynes Farm grass-fed, single-herd cream, which Allison and Will found to be the creamiest cream, resulting in the driest, best butter. Indeed, the milk from Draynes Farm is coveted by baristas, café owners and restaurateurs across Northern Ireland for its sheer superiority in milk-based coffees like flat whites and lattes. This is dairy that steals the spotlight rather than settling for being the supporting act.

EVERYBODY THOUGHT BUTTER JUST CAME FROM THE SUPERMARKET, APPEARING PERFECT AND FULLY FORMED, AND THAT WAS IT.

Surrounded by a patchwork of rolling green fields in the shadow of Slieve Croob in Co. Down, Allison, Will and their small team can often produce upwards of 1,000 hand-pressed rolls of butter daily. Offering a variety of flavours (Dulse Butter, Black Garlic Butter, Smoked Butter, Chipotle Chilli & Smoked Paprika Butter), their unsalted and salted butters are their signature, and ‘Abernethy Gold’ should surely be added to the colour chart for the unmistakable rich shade each roll bears. The husband-and-wife team accidentally ended up in the butter-making business together. Will, a former farmer, and Allison, a nurse for over 30 years, had a bit of a hobby demonstrating hand-churning butter at festivals and events. (‘Because everybody thought butter just came from the supermarket, appearing perfect and fully formed, and that was it,’ Allison says.) But they soon realised how unique their resulting product was and how lost the art of hand-churned and hand-rolled butter had become in Ireland. Plus people were constantly asking them where they could buy the butter, and soon enough they took the leap. Fast forward a decade and Abernethy Butter is frequently listed on menus and as a star ingredient in dishes of the best restaurants in Ireland and the UK, with a slew of stockists and their walls covered with prestigious awards. With a product as pure and simple as butter, there really is nowhere to hide and quality shines in each spheric slice of Abernethy Butter. From a base of the best cream, a sprinkle of salt and a precise, experience-led, hands-on process in the craft of every single roll, ‘country butter’ has never been so cosmopolitan. abernethybutter.com

Potted crab with Abernethy Smoked Butter

Recipe by Abernethy Butter

Abernethy Smoked Butter is handmade in Co. Down with a secret blend of spices to give it a barbecue flavour. In this recipe, the rich, smoky butter and spicy ingredients are mixed with the soft crab meat to create a light but tasty starter. Serves 2 to 4

100g Smoked Abernethy Butter / A pinch of cayenne pepper / A dash of Tabasco / 100g white crab meat / Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper / Toast, to serve

Melt the butter gently in a saucepan and set aside. Add a pinch of cayenne pepper and two or three dashes of Tabasco – don’t add too much or it will overpower the delicate flavour of the crab. Season the crab meat with salt and pepper and mix with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter. Divide the crab between two to four ramekins and pour over the remaining melted butter. Chill in the fridge until the butter has set and hardened. Remove from the fridge and leave at room temperature for 1 hour before serving with toast.