Working, Washing and Salting Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the churn
Put 1 quart of cold, soft water into the churn to harden the butter.
If the water is hot, add a lump of ice.
Gather and wash
Gather the butter with a dash and transfer it to a bowl using a butter-worker.
Wash the butter thoroughly with cold, soft water to remove buttermilk and harden it.
Salt and pack
Salt the butter during the first working, adding a little salt at a time and mixing well.
Use ½ ounce of salt per pound of butter for immediate use, or ¾ to 1 ounce for packing.
After salting, transfer the butter to another vessel and cover it with a cotton cloth soaked in brine.
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
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- The main product being worked, gathered, washed and salted into a firm, preserved mass.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the butter and helps preserve it, added in portions during the first working.
- Cold, soft water
- Hardens the butter and, when used for washing, helps remove buttermilk left in it.
The step that matters
Washing out the buttermilk. Buttermilk left in the butter can spoil it quickly and make it sour, so the butter must be washed thoroughly with cold water until it is clean. Cold water also keeps the butter firm enough to handle.
“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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