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Preserve

To Preserve Butter for Winter, the Best Way

A method for preserving butter by mixing salt, sugar, and saltpetre and storing it in pans.

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 for Winter, the Best Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cure

  1. Blend 2 parts coarse sea salt, 1 part loaf sugar, and 1 part saltpetre together.

  2. Mix 1 ounce of this mixture with 16 ounces of butter until well combined.

Pack and store

  1. Press the mixture into pans that hold 10 to 12 pounds each.

  2. Sprinkle some salt on top; if it turns to brine and doesn't cover the butter, add strong salt and water.

  3. Cover the pans to keep out dust.

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 base that the salt cure is worked into and packed down.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the butter, slowing spoilage.
Loaf sugar
Adds a mild sweetness that balances the salt's sharpness.
Saltpetre
Acts as a preservative that helps inhibit spoilage microbes in the butter.

The step that matters

Keeping the top covered with brine. Salt on the surface dissolves into brine that should cover the butter. A brine layer keeps air away from the surface, which slows spoilage and oxidation. If the butter is left exposed, it is more likely to spoil.

“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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