Canned Butter

@ditch witch I had ghee this weekend and it wasn't bad. It wasn't the creaminess that I used to but it will do.

@Brokor have you ever tried canning butter or in your opinion is it just easier to buy?

 

Man, this is an old thread. I recall losing several jars to mold during my novice attempts at canning butter; it probably was my lack of filtering the stuff that separated from the ghee. Not sure I'll ever try it again as the experiment was a bit expensive. As much as I love butter, I'd rather preserve dairy products via cheese making or something (maybe some lacto fermentation process?). I've been making milk-based kefir recently, but that's a long way from making cheese.

 

If you would expand on this I would appreciate it. I know that you can preserve cheese by dipping it in wax. But if you have some tips on making kefir or others things I would truly be interested.

PS- thanks for letting us know on how your personal experience with canning butter went.

 

Since my name was brought up in this, I will respond. I have canned a lot of things and eaten my own canned meat 5 years later will no ill effects. My storage area has a very stable temperature and is dry and dark. I just reread this entire thread as I was pretty sure I did not post here on it before. I have never canned butter or ghee or cheese for that matter. At the very least I would suggest that anyone thinking of doing this read posts 6, 10, and 16 (to include reading their links). Most of what is covered here is not true canning and I would not advise it. I am not trying to start an argument. We all have free will. Do as you please. I also do not handle venomous snakes to prove my belief in the Lord. Some do. Some die, some don't. You choose. jus sayin.

 

I am not a cheese maker (yet), but I plan on trying it in the next year or so. Someone who has actually made it would be a great resource to start a new thread about it! From the little I know, there are many, many different cheeses; each has a targeted shelf life and usage. Something like mozzarella is fast and "easy" and used quickly, whereas, something like gruyere cheese keeps for long periods of time in the correct storage. I don't think you actually need to use wax to preserve cheese - it seems to be something more recently added for convenience.

Milk-based kefir is more like a yoghurt but uses some odd growths of bacteria (and yeast?) to add healthy probiotics to milk or a few other fluids. I'd recommend reading the free material from "Cultures for Health" if you want to make it. Kombucha is also a supplier of good probiotics - I'd say it's similar to kefir, but sure doesn't look like it. Both grow a mass of symbiotic micro-organisms that transform the sugars (and other things) into healthy probiotics, enzymes, and other things. "Other things" will take a long time to explain and will probably cause arguments with people who are "experts".

Hopefully this brings up more questions than I "answered", but I will say that making kefir and kombucha have been really fun (and great entertainment for the family)!

 

There are a couple things that make canning butter (or margerine works, too, done it): First, the jars need to be 'sterilized' (ie boiled 20 min, then air dried) along with boiling the lids before using them. Second, the butter does need to boil to make sure any excess water is out of it - some sources say that is the cause of fats going bad. I have opened 10 year old canned butter, and canned cheese,, AND canned boiled eggs done in similarly sterilized jars, and although the cheese gets stronger in storage, it was delicious and all my testers liked it. It is possible for fats to go rancid after canning, of course, just as it is possible to have any canning failure, but I have not had the problem arise yet. And rotation of your supplies is, as always, a good way to ensure they are used while at their best.