Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Dr. Anderson's Receipt for Curing Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cure
Blend the fine salt, saltpetre, and sugar together by beating.
Cure the butter
Add 1 ounce of this mixture to every pound of butter.
Incorporate the mixture thoroughly into the butter.
Close the butter for use and let it cure for 2 to 3 weeks before using.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fine salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the butter while it cures.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the butter and gives it a characteristic colour during curing.
- Sugar
- Balances the salt and adds a mild sweetness to the cured butter.
The step that matters
Incorporate the mixture thoroughly into the butter. If the cure is unevenly mixed, some portions get too little salt and preservative while others get too much, so the butter may spoil in places or taste harsh. Thorough mixing gives an even cure throughout.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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