To Make and Cure Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Salt the butter
Use less salt to avoid a briny taste.
Summer butter needs slightly more salt than autumn butter.
Instead of salting the top, place a layer of salt in thin muslin, stitch it loosely, and lay it over the butter to exclude air.
Reduce turnip flavor
To reduce turnip flavor, mix 1 ounce of nitre dissolved in water with 10 gallons of milk.
Feed cattle straw or hay before turnips to help prevent turnip flavor.
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
- The main ingredient that the salt and cure are applied to and preserved.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds savor and draws moisture out, helping to preserve the butter.
The step that matters
Lay the salt layer over the butter to exclude air. Air exposure lets the butter oxidize and spoil faster. A tight, even salt layer in muslin keeps air off the surface, while a loose stitch lets the salt work without sealing the butter too tightly.
“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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