Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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 with 3 gallons of water, adding enough coarse sea salt to float an egg.
Stir in ½ cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of saltpetre, then boil the brine.
Once cooled, strain the brine carefully.
Submerge and store
Pour the brine over the butter rolls to cover them completely, 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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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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
- Forms the rolls that are preserved, and its fat is what the brine is meant to keep.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the brine and draws water out of the butter, helping preserve it.
- Pure white sugar
- Adds a little sweetness and softens the salty flavour of the brine.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the butter and keep its colour.
The step that matters
Excluding air when pouring the brine. The butter must stay fully covered and submerged, because air exposure at the surface lets it oxidise and spoil. A weight keeps every roll below the liquid.
“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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