Smoked salmon butter

Cruscana Smoked Salmon Butter. One third smoked salmon, twelve percent butter, six ingredients.

Smoked salmon butter is a spreadable salmon cream from Herblay near Paris, made from smoked Atlantic salmon, milk, and butter. Not a cream cheese spread, no mousse with a cream topping, no paste with fish flavoring.

Smoked salmon butter is a French salmon cream from the Cruscana manufacturer, consisting of 33 percent smoked salmon, milk, and 12 percent butter. There are evenings when guests ring the doorbell half an hour too early. A jar from the fridge, a knife, a handful of toast points – two minutes later, something that looks prepared is on the table. The manufacturer developed this cream in the sixties precisely for such moments.

Smoke, butter, and a hint of paprika

The smoked salmon butter is the mildest of the four Cruscana creams and the only one without mustard and cayenne. In the jar, it appears pale salmon pink and completely homogeneous. The texture is velvety and melting, without any fibers.

On the palate, the smoke comes first, warm and round rather than sharp. Then the butter takes over and carries the aroma for a long time. The paprika remains in the background, providing color in the taste, not sharpness.

It is measurably salty, with 1.40 grams of salt per 100 grams. This seasoning is intentional. It should carry the cream even when spread thinly on neutral white bread.

Directly from the fridge, it appears firm and closed. Let the jar sit for ten minutes, then the smoke opens up noticeably. At about 14 degrees Celsius, it reaches the point where it can be spread without melting.

With 211 kilocalories per 100 grams, it is in the upper range of the series. This is the price for the butter content, which is what transports the smoke in the first place. Flavor compounds from smoking are fat-soluble, not water-soluble.

Anyone expecting chunky salmon cream will be disappointed. Cruscana processes the mass until it is completely smooth. Visible pieces of fillet are not intended here, and that is a decision for spreadability.

Smoked salmon butter on blinis and in pasta sauce

A scant teaspoon per blini is enough; more will overpower the smoke instead of showcasing it. Place a dollop on warm buckwheat blinis and top with a sprig of dill. A few grains of Fleur de Sel de Guérande provide the crunch that makes the soft cream truly interesting.

In hot cuisine, it acts as a sauce thickener. Stir two teaspoons into a finished cream sauce for tagliatelle after turning off the heat. The modified cornstarch thickens, and the smoke flavor is retained.

With boiled potatoes and chives, one spoon replaces both butter and side dish in one go. On still-warm scrambled eggs, it melts into a fine layer that distributes the fish throughout the dish. It also works well stirred into mashed potatoes, just be sparing with the salt then.

For a quick dip, mix the cream one-to-one with crème fraîche and a squeeze of lemon. Cucumber sticks, kohlrabi, or chicory leaves pair well with it. Served in a glass, the mixture will keep in the fridge for an evening.

It also works for a sandwich, if you apply it thinly and combine it with cucumber. For a filling for hard-boiled eggs, mix the egg yolk with the cream in a two-to-one ratio. Both are surprisingly good ways to use up leftovers.

A dry white wine with clear acidity, such as a Muscadet or a Chablis, pairs well. A Crémant also works, as the carbonation dissolves the buttery film on the palate. You should not serve this cream with robust red wines, as the smoke will lose all its character there.

Good to know: Never boil the cream. Above approximately 70 degrees Celsius, the emulsion of milk and butter separates, and the smoke dissipates. Always stir it in at the end, never at the beginning.

Sixty years of manufacture north of Paris

Cruscana was founded in 1965 in a suburban pavilion near Paris. Denise and Gilbert Jouneau produced shellfish butter there according to a recipe by Auguste Escoffier. Escoffier had described "beurres composés" as a culinary tool in the late 19th century.

Herblay is located about twenty kilometers northwest of Paris, on the Seine. The manufacturer there is one of the businesses that operate under the regional origin label of Île-de-France. A family business with twenty people, not a corporate site.

The underlying principle has remained unchanged. Butter is mixed with a main ingredient to give sauces depth at the last moment. What started as a step in haute cuisine comes here ready in a jar.

In 1981, the Jouneaus handed over their business to the Danish importer Knud Hays Thøgersen. A condition was that the recipes remain unchanged. Since 1980, the factory has been located in Herblay in Val-d'Oise, on 2,200 square meters with three production lines and around twenty employees.

The salmon butter is a special case within this assortment. It belongs to the series of "Beurres de Crustacés" (Crustacean Butters), although salmon is not a crustacean. It was included because the process is the same.

Only Salmo salar, the Atlantic salmon, is used. It arrives already smoked at the factory and is not smoked a second time there. This explains why the smoky aroma here remains soft and never becomes bitter.

The fish is cooked, pureed, and whipped with butter into a stable emulsion. The nearly thirty preparations of the house are developed in an in-house laboratory by a chef. No dyes or added preservatives are used.

Why six ingredients are completely sufficient here

The concise recipe is the actual difference to industrial salmon spreads. Six ingredients, one of which accounts for 33 percent. This leaves no room for the cream to hide behind artificial flavors and thickeners.

The absence of added preservatives has a downside. After opening, the jar belongs in the refrigerator and should be consumed within two days. This cream is not suitable for a supply that has been opened for weeks.

Within the range, it is the gentle entry. The crab butter adds a kick with mustard, while the lobster butter is noticeably bolder with cayenne. If you like smoke and avoid spiciness, start here.

Also noteworthy is what holds the series together. Four creams, one process, four distinctly different results. Anyone who opens two jars side-by-side will taste the difference without prior knowledge.

The small jar works well as a gift, especially in the three-pack of the series. For an evening for two, 100 grams is plenty. For a buffet with eight people, you'd better plan for two jars.

A cream for unannounced visitors and for all evenings when no more than two minutes should pass between the fridge and the table.