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To Preserve Butter

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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

Make the cure

  1. Mix the salt, sugar, and saltpetre together thoroughly.

  2. For every 16 ounces of butter, add 1 ounce of the salt mixture.

Cure the butter

  1. Work the mixture into the butter until well combined.

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

Store

  1. Store the pots in a cool, air-tight place for at least one month before use.

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. Sugar + buttertop 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 bulk of the spread and carries the salt and sugar evenly through it.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and slows spoilage, which lets the butter keep for weeks.
Good-loaf sugar
Adds mild sweetness and softens the sharpness of the salt.

The step that matters

Working the cure into the butter. The salt mixture must be evenly combined so every part of the butter gets the same preserving effect. Unevenly mixed patches can spoil sooner or taste too salty, and the pots need to be packed firm and cold so no air pockets form.

“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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