Canning Butter

I recently tried some canned butter from a manufacturer - Whoa - it was really gross! I also tried some of thier canned cheese, and that was a lot better.

[Traela]

I may have to try this. Butter is on sale this week, 4/$5.00.

[mattro]

I canned butter a couple weeks ago for the first time. It turned out very bitter, with a strong aftertaste. Can anyone give suggestions why, or is this normal for canned butter?

I followed some instruction very closely. My stove is hard to simmer, I might have boiled it too much.

[meredith14]

I never had tried to make it but I can tell you that NOTHING is going to taste like the real thing. You just have to find one that you can live with and "get" by with.
OR...
get a cow and make it that way!

[havejoy]

Originally Posted by mattro

I canned butter a couple weeks ago for the first time. It turned out very bitter, with a strong aftertaste. Can anyone give suggestions why, or is this normal for canned butter?

I followed some instruction very closely. My stove is hard to simmer, I might have boiled it too much.

My canned butter tastes the same as butter that's been stored in the refrigerator so .........not sure what happened unless you might have scorched it??

[hankpac]

The MRE Depot has canned butter with a long shelf life.
I am not sure I would try to do my own canning of butter, and we can food every year.
Smiling Redhead: Canning is done either by either of two methods:water bath (high acid foods like tomatoes) which takes foods up to past boiling, then as it cools, the jar pulls a vacuum, and the lid snaps sealed, while the rubber ring under the lid melts to form a tight seal. Good for storing garden products, about two years max: calls for some equipment.
Pressure: using a large pressure jars of cooked or raw foods are placed in the jars with lids, and pressured to a certain temp and pressure for a certain time, (according to a reference book) then set a side to cool and seal. This is the method for low acid foods and meats.
It is how all of your store bought canned products are produced.
If "No one" you know is doing this, your area has very poor skill sets, and you are NOT prepared for even a modicum of inconvenience.

Here is what the National Center For Home Food Preservation has to say about home canning butter. 1st the link, then the text:
National Center for Home Food Preservation | Canning FAQs

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

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.

There are a few issues with the common directions circulating on the Internet at this time (Spring 2006):

Physical safety and food quality: In the provided directions, the jars are preheated in an oven (dry-heat), which is not recommended for canning jars. Manufacturers of canning jars do not recommend baking or oven canning in the jars. It is very risky with regard to causing jar breakage. There is no guarantee that the jars heated in this dry manner are sufficiently heated to sterilize them, as we do not have data on sterilizing jar surfaces by this dry-heating method.
The butter is not really being 'canned'; it is simply being melted and put in canning jars, and covered with lids. Due to some heat present from the hot melted butters and preheated jars, some degree of vacuum is pulled on the lids to develop a seal. It rarely is as strong a vacuum as you obtain in jars sealed through heat processing. The practice in these 'canned' butter directions is referred to as 'open-kettle' canning in our terminology, which is really no canning at all, since the jar (with product in it) is not being heat processed before storage.
Although mostly fat, butter is a low-acid food. Meat, vegetables, butter, cream, etc. are low-acid products that will support the outgrowth of C. botulinum and toxin formation in a sealed jar at room temperature. Low-acid products have to be pressure-canned by tested processes to be kept in a sealed jar at room temperature. It is not clear what the botulism risk is from such a high-fat product, but to store a low-acid moist food in a sealed jar at room temperature requires processing to destroy spores. A normal salted butter has about 16-17% water, some salt, protein, vitamins and minerals. Some butter-like spreads have varying amounts of water in them. We have no kind of database in the home canning/food processing arena to know what the microbiological concerns would be in a butter stored at room temperature in a sealed jar. In the absence of that, given that it is low-acid and that fats can protect spores from heat if they are in the product during a canning process, we cannot recommend storing butter produced by these methods under vacuum sealed conditions at room temperature.
Some other directions do call for 'canning' the filled jars of butter in a dry oven. This also is not 'canning'. There is not sufficient, research-based documentation to support that 'canning' any food in a dry oven as described on this web page or any page that proposes oven canning is even sufficient heating to destroy bacteria of concern, let alone enough to produce a proper seal with today's home canning lids.

In conclusion, with no testing having been conducted to validate these methods, we would NOT recommend or endorse them as a safe home-canning process, let alone for storing butter at room temperature for an extended period. We do know that the methods given for preheating empty jars, or even filled jars, in a dry oven are not recommended by the jar manufacturers or by us for any food. Aside from the physical safety and quality issues, and the fact that it is not canning at all, if there happened to be spores of certain bacteria in there, these procedures will not destroy those spores for safe room temperature storage.

[hankpac]

btt
I added some solid info to my last post. Of course there are always people who will say they know better.
After 25 years practicing medicine, I learned (early on) that the phrase "In my experience..." means a limited scope of information, and too lazy to check the resources of info available.

[kishtakaye]

Thanks for the recipe on how to can butter!!! i would have never thought that canning butter was possible. I found the best cook book to help me to figure out how to incorporate my food storage in to my daily cooking!
Simple Recipes Using Food Storage pick it up on line atCedar Fort, Inc - LDS Book Publisher, LDS Books, Mormon Books, LDS Gifts, LDS Art, LDS Jewelry, LDS Outlets and more. It tells you so much!!! like how to make baby formula, yougart and many other things!

[bayoumom]

Originally Posted by Elgama

the Scots have pickled eggs - being able to can stuff in the UK isn't easy as we are now advised even in church books not to can vegatables etc, so the equipment needed isn;t available I know my husband wanted to

-Charley

Do I understand you correct that the church is advising members not to can vegetables? If this is correct may I ask why? I am in the US and have not heard this.

[hankpac]

We can peas, green beans, carrots, beets, corn, Spinach and other greens, tomatoes, berries. You can also pickle then pressure can veges.
Read the Ball, Kerr or mason books, for technique, and equipment.
If you have a pressure canner you can can meats as well. Just don't try to can butter, the recipe above is dangerous.
I would have to actually SEE the books being referred to regarding a church prohibition for canning. I think this is spurious (that means I don't believe it).