# Canning Butter



## Pamelina (Mar 23, 2020)

Hi everyone. I have a question about canning butter. I used to can butter often about 15 years ago when I had access to fresh milk. But now I’m reading that’s a big no-no. I did it on the oven in canning jars. I have never had a problem but was that just luck that we didn’t get sick? Does anyone here do that?


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## gleepish (Mar 10, 2003)

I've come across other people (website searches) that do it... but it is not something that I am comfortable with trying myself. There are other things that I do can that aren't recommended, but those are all things that are-in my opinion-heated to a high enough temp, and for long enough that any unseen or unsmelled bacteria in the jar would be 'cooked out' before they are consumed. I may just be rationalizing unsafe practices to myself, but that is how I feel.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Is oven canning recommended at all anymore?


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## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

Alice In TX/MO said:


> Is oven canning recommended at all anymore?


No, it is unsafe as is canning butter.


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## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

Pamelina said:


> Hi everyone. I have a question about canning butter. I used to can butter often about 15 years ago when I had access to fresh milk. But now I’m reading that’s a big no-no. I did it on the oven in canning jars. I have never had a problem but was that just luck that we didn’t get sick? Does anyone here do that?


You were very lucky.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

I never heard of canning butter .. wouldn't it just melt ?
why not just freeze it ?


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## Pamelina (Mar 23, 2020)

No it doesn’t melt. It’s like a ghee consistency. I don’t always have room to freeze it.


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## Pamelina (Mar 23, 2020)

Alice In TX/MO said:


> Is oven canning recommended at all anymore?


I have never canned anything in the oven except butter. Several of my friends that had cows did it for years and taught me. Neither they or I ever had a problem. But now I see it’s not recommended. Guess I won’t attempt that again! Lol


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## Wolf mom (Mar 8, 2005)

Some things that aren't recommended are not recommended out of not wanting to be sued from that one in ten thousand that didn't so it right to begin with and got sick.....


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## Splattered-With-Ink (Jun 16, 2020)

I have never heard of canning butter.


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## Wyobuckaroo (Dec 30, 2011)

I never heard of canning butter .. wouldn't it just melt ?
why not just freeze it ?

++++++
We just freeze butter when it is on sale... We also have a large ethnic population in the area that is used to using ghee.. We keep several cans of ghee on hand. We do use it at times, so the open container keeps well in the fridge.. 

Of the products we can find locally, it seems there is a large difference in the product sold as ghee.. Some seem little more then clarified butter. Some are quite a clear, very smooth more refined product.. But with a more refined price... 

You can make ghee.. It is not hard, but a significant process beyond clarified butter.. For us, not worth the trouble when we have a good selection of available products..


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## Pamelina (Mar 23, 2020)

Ok. Found my old recipe for butter canning. Put up 18 pints today!


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## Wyobuckaroo (Dec 30, 2011)

Pamelina said:


> Ok. Found my old recipe for butter canning. Put up 18 pints today!


++++++++
OK.... From you old recipe....
Please share your recipe and process for this... 
Thanks..


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## JeepHammer (May 12, 2015)

I can't recommend to anyone that a common oven is capable of doing canning correctly is 'Safe'. Period.

Around 250°F is *Supposed* to kill about everything, given the product has time to completely heat saturate long enough for all nasties to properly die...

NOT recommending this as a 'Home Game', But I metal can (tin) butter.
I use a pressure retort (pressure 'Canner') and I use a time/temp data logger in the batch being canned.
Mostly so I don't have to overcook everything by knowing exactly what time it takes for the product to reach the 240°-250°F mark.
I don't care for stringy or mushy food, so I try to refine the process...
And the time/temp data loggers are around $100, re-useable, so I went that direction.

I'll admit, I'm a gadget geek, it might be excessive if you already have something worked out,
I'm fairly new to this stuff, and I went the full science route...

What I'd like to know is how they dehydrate butter! 
It's not 'Perfect', but it's not bad and I'd like to do it myself, but I can't find anything on how they do it...
Dehydrated butter is like dehydrated eggs, they don't even bother putting an expiration date on it.


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## Pamelina (Mar 23, 2020)

As I said I found my old recipe finally! Lol..I did use my oven a time or 2 though as several homesteaders I know do it that way. However.. that being said I was wary of that but
They have never had any issues so I followed suit. I have never had issues either. Is there a safer way? Yes. It had been so long since I canned butter. Job travel definitely put a wrench in that.. so here ya go! I will use about 10 lbs or more because I want to make it worth my while. Slowly melt the butter. Make sure you are stirring and checking it so it doesn’t burn. After it’s melted turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Stir so it doesn’t burn.I use pint jars for this myself. The solids will settle to the bottom of the pot so you can keep it stirred up so you can include the solids in each jar. I personally don’t do that. I don’t like the way the butter looks after it’s canned with the milk solids on the bottom. I just use the nice yellow butter on top and ladle that into hot jars. Wipe lids and seal. Process pints for 75 min or quarts at 90 since it is an animal fat treat as you would meat. 10 or 15 lbs of pressure depending where you live. If done properly the butter will last 4 or 5 years.


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## Northof49 (Mar 3, 2018)

In the pioneer days they would store butter by dropping it in the well.


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## Wyobuckaroo (Dec 30, 2011)

Pamelina..
Thanks for the info.. 

Northof49.. 
Yes.. Pioneers used to suspend a lot of thing just over the surface of the water or just into the water to keep them cool.
It was too old and not usable when I was a kid but I remember having an old root cellar on the ranch..


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## 101pigs (Sep 18, 2018)

Northof49 said:


> In the pioneer days they would store butter by dropping it in the well.


Before we got elect. on the farm we kept a lot in the well. It was 25 ft down to the water and 75 ft. deep. Very good water. Keep milk and some fresh meat down for 4-5 days. Most meat we salted down and smoked and it would keep all year till we butchered again. Also use to cure meat and some vet. in salt water for a few days and. A lot of food we cooked in a pressure cooking and canned it in qt. jars. It would last over a year. We would do all the canning in the fall when it cooled down. Also butcher the meat when it was cool weather so it would not go bad. Canning Peaches and Apple, ect. for a big canning day also in the fall. In the Spring we would get 100 baby chicks and raise them. When they were 8 weeks old we would have frieded Chicken every Sunday for the Summer. Always kept some of the Chickens for laying Hens. Anothe thing we canned was wild Cherrys and Wild Grapes (Jelly) Made a lot of butter in a big churn and kept it cool in the well. Used to make fresh butter about once a month. Also made a lot of Cottage Cheese from fresh Cream.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

I've canned butter in the past, and it lasted a long time. None of us got botulism.

Don't know that it's dumb luck, but many neighbors do the same thing. We use Lew Rockwell's method.

Whoops. Not Lew Rockwell. Miles Stair. 



http://www.endtimesreport.com/canning_butter.html



Bonus: Hamburger Rocks!



http://www.endtimesreport.com/hamburger_rocks.html


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## Woopsadaisy (Apr 11, 2020)

I just want to add that in India, canning butter is a common practice. It's call Ghee, and it's self stable for practically forever. We call it "clarified" butter as it is just the butter oils and all of the solids sink and all of the sugars and etc can be skimmed off the top. It's nutritious and delicious this way. Great on popcorn, and can be used in baking like any butter is marvelous. Has more "butter" flavor than butter. 
I put it in the oven at 250 for an hour or two in a pyrex or a cake pan. I do 1-2 pounds. Skim off the stuff on top and pour the oil into jar. I store it in the pantry. once I open it, I store it in the fridge.


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## Woopsadaisy (Apr 11, 2020)

I guess ghee is cooked longer than clarified butter is, so that it gets a slightly golden hue and a nutty sort of flavor. But the principles are the same-- the solids, sugars and etc are filtered out. The smoke point is about the same (quite high) while the melting point is quite low.


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