Name: Pickle for Butter
Ingredients: 1 pound coarse sea salt; 1 ounce saltpetre; ½ pound sugar; 3 quarts water

Pickle for Butter

Ingredients

1 pound coarse sea salt
1 ounce saltpetre
½ pound sugar
3 quarts water

Directions

Make the pickle

Combine salt, saltpetre, sugar, and water in a large pot.
Scald the mixture and skim off any impurities.
Allow the pickle to cool.

Pour and serve

Pour the cooled pickle over the butter.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt: Seasons the brine and draws moisture out, helping preserve the butter.
Saltpetre: Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve and firm the butter.
Sugar: Balances the sharp saltiness of the brine with a mild sweetness.

“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.