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Dessert

To Preserve Butter

A method for preserving butter using salt, sugar, and saltpetre.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sugar 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

  1. Remove the buttermilk from the butter by rinsing it in cold water until clear.

  2. Mix 2 parts salt, 1 part sugar, and 1 part saltpetre together.

Cure and pack

  1. Add 1 ounce of this mixture to the cleaned butter and work it well.

  2. Pack the butter into pots, ensuring it is firm and cool.

  3. Store the pots in a cool place, away from air.

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 + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Butter
Forms the fat base of the preserve, carrying the flavour and texture.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and inhibits microbial growth, helping the butter keep.
Loaf sugar
Balances the saltiness and softens the sharp edge of the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the butter's colour and inhibits spoilage bacteria during storage.

The step that matters

Rinsing out the buttermilk. Buttermilk left in the butter holds water and milk solids that can spoil or turn sour during storage. Rinsing until the water runs clear removes them, so the cure can work on the fat alone.

“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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