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Preserve

To Preserve Butter for Winter

A method of preserving butter by mixing it with a salt-sugar-saltpetre mixture and storing in glazed pots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blend the salt, sugar, and saltpetre together well.

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

Pot and seal

  1. Press the mixture into glazed pots that hold 10 to 14 pounds each.

  2. Cover the top with additional salt and add saltwater if necessary to keep it dust-free.

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 that carries the cure and becomes the preserved spread.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the butter while helping preserve it.
Loaf sugar
Balances the salt with a mild sweetness and softens the sharp saline taste.
Saltpetre
Acts as a curing agent that helps inhibit spoilage-causing microbes in the butter.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture into the pots. Thorough blending and firm packing remove air pockets, which helps the cure distribute evenly and limits spoilage at the surface where air can reach the butter.

“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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