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 ↓
To Cure Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Powder the lump-sugar, saltpetre, and common salt fine and sift them together.
Use 1 ounce of this mixture for every pound of butter.
Pack and keep
Pack the butter in wooden or vitrified jars, avoiding glazed pans.
This method will preserve the butter for two to three years.
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
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and slows spoilage, preserving the butter.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the butter and keeps its colour during curing.
- Lump-sugar
- Softens the sharpness of the salt and adds a mild sweetness.
- Butter
- The fat being cured, which the salt mixture preserves over time.
The step that matters
Powder and sift the cure fine. Finely powdered and sifted salt, sugar, and saltpetre mix evenly, so every part of the butter receives the same level of curing and preservation.
“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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