Recipe: Jersey Black Butter

Few traditional Jersey foods tell the story of the Island quite like Black Butter. Known in Jèrriais as Lé Nièr Beurre, despite its name there is actually no butter in it at all. Instead, it is a wonderfully dark, rich preserve made by slowly cooking apples with cider, sugar, lemon and spices until everything reduces into something thick, glossy and intensely flavoured.

To understand Black Butter, you first have to understand just how important apples once were to Jersey. Orchards were a defining feature of the Island landscape and cider was produced and consumed in enormous quantities. Jersey Heritage records that the 1795 Richmond Map shows around 20% of Jersey's agricultural land growing apples, while in the mid-19th century around a million gallons of cider were being consumed locally each year.

Black Butter was also about much more than preserving a glut of apples. The old Jersey Women's Institute cookbook Bouôn Appétit remembers the Séthée d'Nièr Beurre, Black Butter Night, when neighbours gathered together to make it. Hundreds of pounds of apples were peeled and sliced, a fire was lit and a huge pan of cider was set to reduce before the apples were gradually added. The mixture then cooked through the night and into the following day, with everyone taking turns to stir while friends joined in with singing, dancing, food and plenty of conversation.

The tradition hasn't disappeared, Black Butter is still made communally in Jersey today, including at the National Trust for Jersey's annual gathering at The Elms, where volunteers peel enormous quantities of apples before the mixture is stirred through the day and night. Spices, liquorice and lemons are added towards the end before the finished Black Butter is finally put into jars.

Some recipes don't just preserve food. They preserve a little piece of who we are.

Traditional Jersey Black Butter

Makes approximately 6–8 jars

The WI book records some extraordinary recipes intended for genuine Black Butter Nights. Its Grouville recipe calls for around 700lb of apples and 10 gallons of cider! Thankfully, it also records a considerably more manageable domestic recipe. We've used that as the basis for ours while retaining the traditional flavours of Jersey Black Butter.

Ingredients

• 3kg sweet apples
• 1kg sharp cooking apples
• 1.25–1.5kg sugar
• 2 lemons, zest and juice
• 800ml water
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground allspice

For an even more traditional version: replace some or all of the water with Jersey cider and add a small piece of liquorice root. Cider and liquorice both appear in the larger traditional recipes and remain characteristic ingredients in Black Butter today.

Method

Peel, core and slice the sweet apples and place them in a large, heavy-bottomed preserving pan with the water, or cider if using. Cook gently until the apples have completely softened.

Add the sharp apples and continue cooking slowly, stirring regularly. As the fruit collapses and the mixture begins to thicken, reduce the heat and keep cooking. Black Butter isn't something to rush; its characteristic colour and flavour come from long, slow reduction.

Once the mixture has reduced considerably, add the sugar together with the lemon zest and juice. If using liquorice root, add it now.

Continue cooking very gently, stirring increasingly frequently as it thickens. Eventually the mixture should become very thick, deeply coloured and glossy. Traditionally this took many hours and, when made communally in enormous quantities, the stirring continued throughout the night.

Towards the end of cooking add the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Remove the liquorice root if used, then spoon the hot Black Butter into clean, sterilised jars and seal.

Allow it to cool completely before tucking in.

Spread it thickly on warm toast, pair it with a good mature cheese, serve it alongside roast pork or add a spoonful to a gravy or casserole. Like so many of Jersey's traditional foods, there really isn't only one way to enjoy it.

Our advice? Get some friends round, open a bottle of cider and share the stirring. After all, that's how Jersey has been making it for generations!