Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
A Brine to Preserve Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the butter
Work the butter into small rolls and wrap each in a clean muslin cloth, tying them with string.
Make the brine
Make a brine by dissolving enough coarse sea salt in 3 gallons of water to float an egg.
Add ½ cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of saltpetre to the brine.
Boil the brine, then let it cool and strain it carefully.
Cover and weigh down
Pour the brine over the butter rolls to completely cover them, excluding air.
Place a weight on top to keep the rolls submerged.
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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter (in the method)
- The food being brined; the brine seasons it and helps keep it from spoiling.
- Pure white sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness to the brine.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve color and slow spoilage.
The step that matters
Cool the brine before pouring and keep the rolls fully submerged. Hot brine can soften or melt the butter and ruin the wrapping. Any roll left above the liquid is exposed to air, which invites oxidation and spoilage, so every roll must stay covered under the weight.
“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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