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Preserve

To Preserve Butter

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

To Preserve Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the butter

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

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

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

Pack and store

  1. Pack the butter into a container and let it firm up and cool.

  2. Store the butter away from air and do not use for at least one month.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 the salt and sugar are worked into, giving the preserve its body.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and slows microbial growth, helping the butter keep.
Loaf sugar
Adds mild sweetness and softens the sharpness of the salt.
Saltpetre
Acts as a preservative that inhibits bacteria during the long storage period.

The step that matters

Working the salt mixture into the butter. The salt, sugar, and saltpetre must be evenly distributed. Pockets of concentrated salt can taste harsh, while spots with too little preservative leave the butter less protected during storage.

“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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