Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Canning Butter

Let me say right off the bat that I am not telling anyone they should home can butter.  I'm just telling you what I do.  Use your own judgement.

I have been putting off the home canning of butter.  Some time back I made the mistake of following the instructions of someone on YouTube who didn't know what they were talking about.  The experiment was a disaster.  I was a bit reluctant to try again, especially with the price of butter these days.

Then I remembered that Jackie Clay, who writes a column for Backwoods Home Magazine, had posted about how she cans butter.  I trust her judgement as she has been doing this for many years.  She has a question and answer part to her column, and if someone asks about a canning method or recipe that is questionable, Jackie will tell that person if it is safe or not to home can, and why.

Here is the method that Jackie uses to can her butter, in her words:

"To can butter, melt it in a saucepan over low heat. Heat it enough to simmer out any remaining buttermilk. Sterilize your wide mouth half pint jars in boiling water, holding them in simmering water until just before you will fill them so they are sterile and very hot. Simmer your butter for 10 minutes, very gently, to drive off any remaining moisture. Stir often to prevent solids from scorching. Remove jars from heat and invert to drain thoroughly. Then turn them over and carefully ladle the hot butter into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Wipe the rim of the jar, place a hot, previously-simmered lid on the jar and screw the ring down firmly tight. Process the jars in a boiling water bath canner for 60 minutes.

You can keep the moisture from settling to the bottom of the jars by waiting until the jars have cooled some after processing, then shaking them gently to redistribute the moisture. Repeat this every 5 minutes or so as the jars cool completely. Carefully check your seals as the shaking could cause a seal to fail. Refrigerate any jar that doesn’t seal and use soon or reprocess the butter from the melting, onward, all over again with a new lid.  -Jackie"

I followed her instructions to the letter.  I started with 6 lbs. of butter that yielded 14 half-pint jars.  The butter tends to separate in the jars, but the gentle shaking of the jars while cooling fixed that problem.

This butter will not be exactly like the butter was before canning.  It will be a little bit grainy the way butter is when it melts and hardens again.  But there is no difference in taste and it melts on toast or vegetables beautifully.  Some may not like the texture, but it doesn't bother me at all.  I would not hesitate to use this butter on a slice of bread, or anywhere else that calls for butter.

I have another 6 lbs of butter in the fridge to can and then I may have to make a run to Sam's Club.  Butter at Sams is $2.75 a pound.  Butter at the grocery is getting close to $4.00 a pound.

Yep.  I'll be canning a lot more of this.

18 comments:

  1. Saved the article for my files and linked you on Facebook and my blog.

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  2. I have purchased powderd butter, but as of yet I have not been successful in re-constituting.

    What butter from Sams do you use? should it be unsalted?

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  3. Thank you, Gorges. Some folks cringe at the thought of home canned butter. Claim it isn't safe. But I trust Jackie Clay's word. She says she has used home canned butter that has sat on the shelf for several years and it was just as good as fresh. I figure that whatever I get at today's prices will cost a lot more soon, so canning butter just makes sense to me.

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  4. JUGM...I buy the salted, but I like food a little bit salty. Some use half salted and half unsalted. It is just to your own taste.

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    1. Okay...I always thought as a rule it needed to be unsalted. I think we will give this a try.

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  5. This is interesting... never thought to can it...Thanks for the tip

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  6. Mary...I usually keep a stock in the freezer, but then got to thinking about the storms we get in the summertime. Some areas near here, after a tornado passed through, were without electricity for weeks a couple of years ago. Since that time, I decided to pretty much can or dehydrate as much as possible. Food is just too expensive to waste.

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  7. JUGM...I don't think there are any hard and fast rules, especially since canning butter is not FDA approved. That doesn't mean a person can't can butter - it just means that the FDA hasn't ever tested it. As far as salt content goes, as far as I know it is personal choice. If you have issues with salt, then go for unsalted. Makes no difference. Let me know how it works out for you.
    By the way...the next batch I can, I plan to heat the jars in a 200 degree oven, on a towel covered cookie sheet for the ten minutes the butter is simmering. Less chance of water getting into the jars that way, as opposed to heating them in water.

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    1. I do my jars in the oven as well...actually learned it from Miss Kay off Duck Dynasty....lol

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  8. Canning butter would be great. Buying canned butter from New Zealand is not cheap!

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  9. Harry...As much as I would love to just order whatever I want for my food storage, I can't do that on a fixed income. So I'm always looking outside the box for ways to have what I want without spending a fortune. Canning butter is one of them. I also can all sorts of meat, vegetables, soups, fruit, jam/jelly, etc. Would can pickles if I could find cucumbers cheap. It all helps give me a bigger variety than I would have if I had to buy it already canned. I don't have access to cheap canned goods here.

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  10. Canned butter??? Wow I am behind times in prep.

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  11. No, Rob.....you aren't behind. I'm sure there are items in your preps that I haven't thought of. And there are a lot of things other people have that I don't, simply because it isn't practical for me or their family has needs that are different from mine. I just happen to know about canning butter because of my interest in canning in general. I was doing this long before I knew about prepping.

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  12. A little clarification here: (pun intended) but do you can the liquid part that remains, or the whitish part? When clarifying butter, I've always wondered WHICH part was the "clarified".

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  13. Dana...I love a pun. Not good at making them up - just good at giggling over them!
    I've never worked with clarified butter, but it is my understanding that the liquid part is considered clarified butter. The whitish parts are the milk solids. In canning butter, I have kept stirring while filling the jars so the two don't separate.
    And now you have me wondering. Clarified butter has a longer shelf life than regular butter. The temp. at which it starts to smoke is higher than regular butter. I would think that it might be better to can clarified butter. Is the taste the same as regular? How would it taste on toast or bread? Could you melt it and pour over popcorn? (That is essential in my house!) Any ideas?

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  14. JUGM...Ya learn something new every day! I think I will use that method from now on. "Back in the day" jars were always turned upside down in a cake pan of water and boiled. I don't think it matters how the jars are heated and the oven method seems much easier.

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  15. Do you know of any youtube videos that show you just how to shake the cooling cans of butter? I just want to make sure that I do not shake too hard and too much.

    Also, I have never clarified butter so will need to research that more...find out if it taste just like butter....and can be used the same.

    Another question: Does the canned butter stay firm in the can during the hot days of summer? Or does it melt in the canning jars and then firm back up once it cools down again. My coconut oil does this and was just wondering for I know what is normal or not.

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  16. Nora...If you run a search for canning butter on YouTube, "katzcradul" and "BexarPrepper" both have videos on the subject. There are lots of videos about it, but I tend to ignore those that say to just pour the hot butter into jars, put on lids and rings and do nothing else. I feel the butter should be processed, which is why I use Jackie Clay's instructions. She has been canning butter for a long time with excellent results. I gently - very gently - shake the jars as in a back and forth rocking motion until the solids combine with the clear. Takes several shakes before it is cool enough to remain combined.

    Sometimes my butter will remain in a semi-liquid form and sometimes it is solid after processing. I don't know why, but I suspect it may have to do with the humidity on the day it is canned. If a jar that I open is liquidy, I just refrigerate and it firms right up. The taste doesn't seem to be affected by this. Sorry I don't have a better answer, but perhaps those who have canned butter more than I have would know. Thanks for stopping by.

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