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A Brine to Preserve Butter

A brine made with water, salt, sugar, and saltpetre used to preserve butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

  1. Work the butter into small rolls and wrap each in a clean muslin cloth, tying them with string.

Make the brine

  1. Make a brine with 3 gallons of water, adding enough coarse sea salt to float an egg.

  2. Add ½ cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of saltpetre to the brine.

  3. Boil the brine, then let it cool and strain it carefully.

Cover and weigh down

  1. Pour the brine over the butter rolls to cover them completely, excluding air.

  2. Place a weight on top to keep the rolls submerged.

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

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.

  1. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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, providing the fat being cured.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the brine and draws water out of the butter through osmosis.
Pure white sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the saltiness of the brine.
Saltpetre
Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the butter and keep its colour.

The step that matters

Keeping the rolls fully submerged. Any butter left above the brine is exposed to air, which can encourage spoilage and oxidation. Covering the rolls completely and holding them under with a weight keeps air out and the curing even.

“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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