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 the cure
Thoroughly cleanse the butter from milk.
Mix 2 parts salt, 1 part sugar, and 1 part saltpetre together.
Cure and store
Add 1 ounce of the mixture to the butter and work it well.
Pack the butter into pots, keeping it from air.
Let it sit for a month before using.
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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Butter + sugartop 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
- Butter
- Forms the fatty base that the cure is worked into and stored in.
- Salt
- Draws out moisture and slows microbial growth, which helps preserve the butter.
- Loaf sugar
- Softens the sharpness of the salt and adds a mild sweetness.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the butter over time.
The step that matters
Working the cure evenly through the butter. Salt and saltpetre only protect the parts they reach. If the mixture is unevenly worked in, pockets with too little cure can let spoilage start during the month of rest. Removing milk first matters too, since milk solids spoil more easily.
“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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