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Scotch Method of Salting Butter

A method for salting butter using coarse sea salt, sugar, and a brine made from boiled water.

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 ↓

Scotch Method of Salting Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the butter

  1. Wash the butter in cold water, pressing it until the water runs clear.

  2. Spread the butter in thin layers.

  3. Sprinkle the butter with salt, using 1 ounce for every 3 pounds.

  4. Work the salt into the butter thoroughly.

  5. Press out excess brine from the butter.

  6. Mix in a little of the pickle with the butter.

  7. If the butter isn't clear, wash it again in fresh pickle.

Make the pickle

  1. Boil water with enough salt to float an egg.

  2. Add 2 ounces of sugar to the boiling water.

Pack and seal

  1. Prepare a clean kit by scouring it.

  2. Rub the kit with dry salt.

  3. Rinse the kit with pickle.

  4. Pack the butter into the kit, leaving 2 inches from the top.

  5. Cover the butter with pickle and a clean linen rag.

  6. Seal the kit tightly.

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 body of the dish, and its washing and salting set its texture and keeping quality.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the butter, helping it keep.
Loaf sugar
Adds a mild sweetness to the pickle brine.

The step that matters

Working out the brine. Butter must be washed until the water runs clear, because leftover milk solids and impurities spoil the butter. Pressing out excess brine and repacking cleanly limits the water that lets spoilage start.

“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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