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 butter
Remove buttermilk from the butter by working it in cold water until clear.
Salt and pack
Mix the salt, sugar, and saltpetre together.
Add 1 ounce of the mixture to the butter and work it well.
Pack the butter into pots, ensuring it is firm and cold.
Store
Store the butter in a cool place, away from air.
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 body of the dish, with its fat carrying the flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and slows bacterial growth, helping the butter keep.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds mild sweetness and helps balance the saltiness.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps inhibit spoilage during long storage.
The step that matters
Remove buttermilk by working the butter in cold water until clear. Leftover buttermilk contains water and milk solids that can spoil the butter and let bacteria grow, so the butter must be washed thoroughly before salting.
“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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