Skip to main content
Main

German Method of Clarifying and Preserving Fresh Butter

This recipe clarifies and preserves fresh butter by simmering with onion and skimming impurities.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

German Method of Clarifying and Preserving Fresh Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the butter

  1. Set a large clean tinned copper vessel on a trivet over a charcoal fire.

  2. Add the fresh butter and the onion.

  3. Watch closely and skim as soon as it begins to boil.

  4. Reduce the heat to let it simmer for 5 minutes.

  5. If not removed immediately, extinguish the fire.

  6. Remove the onion and let the butter stand until impurities sink to the bottom.

Store

  1. Transfer the liquid butter to air-tight canisters or jars, keeping them covered.

  2. Use a wooden spoon to take out the butter as needed.

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 + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fresh butter
Melting and clarifying it separates milk solids and water from the pure butterfat.
Onion
Its aroma is absorbed during heating and it helps keep the butter from scorching.

The step that matters

Skimming as the butter begins to boil. Milk solids and water foam up and can scorch or darken the butter if not skimmed promptly. Removing the fire when needed prevents burning and keeps the clarified fat clear.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes