canned butter today

[bookwormom]

I canned some a few weeks ago, actually it is rendered butter. I learned it from my mother and grandmother and they in turn from their mother and grandmother. My grandmother had a crock with a board on it, which was called the Butterschmalz crock, nothing else was ever kept in that crock. It kept for a long time. it seems it does not get rancid and can be heated very high, like coconut oil. It is great in baking, we love the flavor, but it is not suited for spreading on bread.
It is not recommended, but I put the washed jars in the oven of my woodstove and left them there until I needed them. they were much hotter than if I had sterilized them with water. also, the rendered butter is much hotter, too. You have to be very careful not to get burned. I wipe the rim of the jars with a paper towel and alcohol to make sure there is no fat residue. They all sealed fine.

[CanNerd]

That is not "canning" since you are not going through the pasteurizing process and just heat "sealing" does not kill bacteria, mold or other spores that may be present.

But you are aware of that obviously since you still want to do it.

[sbemt456]

Bookwormom that sounds good, I would love to have a milk cow and make butter. I remember when I was little we would make lard at hog killing time and mom would put it in the freezer in the spring to keep it from getting rancid. And in early years I did the same thing till I discovered that if you put hot hot grease in hot jars with a lid that they would seal and keep fresh for the longest time. So I would think the clarified butter would also. Sure bet it is tasty.
Shhh, dont tell anyone but when I can in the summer time I heat all my jars in a 250 degree oven till very hot, then pack and proceed as usual. Although I wont recommend my method to someone new to canning.


Have a great day!

stella

[Shamrock1121]

What you are calling "rendered" butter, ghee or clarified butter, has the milk solids removed and only the fat used. It has a higher smoke point for frying because the milk solids have been removed and is commonly used in food preparation today. As was pointed out no 'canning' method at all is used. CanNerd has hit the nail on the head about what people call "canned butter".

Ghee has a longer shelf-life (how long is up for debate) because the milk solids are removed. Ghee was developed in the tropical climates of India long before the advent of refrigeration to keep butter from spoiling.
You might enjoy Rebecca Wood's information (she's the author of the Splendid Grain): http://www.rwood.com/Articles/Ghee.htm

Now for my rant on home canning butter, which I've posted I don't know HOW many times....

Here's the information from the National Center for Home Food Preservation concerning the safety of home-canning butter:

Q. Should I use directions for canning butter at home that I see on the Internet?

A. Indeed, there are some directions for 'canning' butter in circulation on the Internet. Most of what we have seen are not really canning, as they do not have Boiling Water or Pressure Canning processes applied to the filled jar. Jars are preheated, the butter is melted down and poured into the jars, and the lids are put on the jars. Some directions say to put the jars in the refrigerator as they re-harden, but to keep shaking them at regular intervals to keep the separating butter better mixed as it hardens. This is merely storing butter in canning jars, not ‘canning’. True home canning is when the food is heated enough to destroy or sufficiently acid enough to prevent growth of all spores of Clostridium botulinum (that causes botulism) and other pathogens during room temperature storage on the shelf.

Additionally, when you consider the economics of the process (energy costs involved with heating, cost of jars and lids, etc.), even if the butter is bought on sale, it may not be economically viable to prepare butter to store for years in this manner. Good quality butter is readily available at all times, if butter is needed for fresh use. If the concern is about emergency food supplies, there are dry forms of butter that can be purchased and stored, oils that can be used in an emergency, or commercially canned butter in tins (although we have only seen this for sale from other countries). Melted and re-hardened butter may not function the same as original butter in many types of baking anyway.
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For the life of me I don't know why people don't opt for dried butter powder for home storage (or coconut oil which has a long, stable, shelf-life), instead of risking "home-canned butter", which includes the dangerous, low-acid, milk solids. Both dried butter powder (reconstituted) and coconut oil can be used as a bread spread, and both are excellent for baking. I keep both in storage and regularly use both.

We are contending with more and stronger bacteria than ever before, so what "grandma" did as a method of home food preservation, may not work on today's "bugs". To risk your health using unsafe food preservation methods in these days of the "super bug" is beyond me.

-Karen