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 Preserve Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Mix the coarse sea salt, sugar, and saltpetre together until well blended.
Take 1 ounce of this mixture for every 16 ounces of butter.
Cure the butter
Work the mixture thoroughly into the butter.
Seal the butter for use and do not open it for a month.
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
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the butter, slowing spoilage by microbes.
- Sugar
- Balances the salt's sharpness and adds mild sweetness to the finished butter.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the butter and supports its colour.
The step that matters
Work the mixture thoroughly into the butter. Salt and saltpetre preserve only where they reach. If the mixture is unevenly worked in, some spots get too little cure and may spoil, while others become overly salty or harsh.
“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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