The Chef: Joseph Rose (Lockwood)The Challengers:Thomas Rice and Kurt Guzowski (Tete Charcuterie)The Ingredient: Smen
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Smen is traditionally made from goat butter, sheep butter, or a combination of the two that’s been aged between one and four months—though it can be kept much longer. Berber farmers in Morocco reportedly bury a jar of smen when a daughter is born and dig it up on her wedding day to season the food served at the celebration. What Rose used was made from cow’s milk butter (just like you’d buy at the grocery store, he said) and infused with the traditional salt and oregano, both of which help to preserve it. Smen is often clarified before it’s fermented, but Rose clarified it afterward—it wasn’t totally necessary, he said, but he prefers clarified butter.
Though Rose had smen that was already fermented, he also demonstrated how to make it: he steeped dried oregano in hot water to make an infusion, then cooled it, strained it, and kneaded it into a pound and a half of softened butter, along with a tablespoon of salt. Once it had been worked in, he strained the butter through cheesecloth to remove any excess water, then put it into jars to ferment.
