Packing Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the jar
Clean a stone pot or jar thoroughly and wash it in cold, strong brine.
Pack the butter
Work the butter well to ensure it is free from buttermilk.
Place a few inches of butter in the jar and beat it down solid with a wooden beater, turning off any escaping milk.
Repeat the process until the jar is filled within 1.5 inches of the top with pounded butter.
Brine and store
Pour 1 inch of clear brine over the butter, made by dissolving salt in warm water and cooling it.
Cork the jar tightly and cover it with a cloth or piece of buckskin.
Store the jar at a low temperature and check occasionally to ensure it is covered with brine, renewing if necessary.
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
- Butter
- Forms the main body of the preserved food, with its fat setting solid when packed down.
- Salt
- Brine seals the surface and helps preserve the butter during long storage.
The step that matters
Working the butter free from buttermilk. Leftover buttermilk left in the butter can spoil and sour it over time, so it must be worked out thoroughly before packing. Keeping the butter fully covered by brine also limits contact with air, which slows oxidation and spoilage.
“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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