# Dehydrating Butter



## StormySar (Oct 2, 2007)

I see powdered butter for sale in some survivalist type stores and am wondering... Can I dry butter and puree it into a powder myself? How would I do it? How long does it keep?


----------



## hippygirl (Apr 3, 2010)

I "think" powdered butter is spray-dried...the equipment is out of most folk's price range.

I could be wrong, though...


----------



## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

There are folks that make their own canned butter. A quick google will show you how, though the NCHFP says it's a bad thing to do.


----------



## viggie (Jul 17, 2009)

Butter is already a method of preservation. If you want it to last longer, it freezes well. Other home preservation methods are not safe and the instructions for "canning" butter I've seen on prepping sites are not even processed in a canner. It's not worth risking lives over butter.

The commercial powdered butter works really well in recipes though and is well worth the investment if you are looking for long term storage. Maybe check out an Indian grocery for ghee if you want something spreadable?


----------



## Guest (Feb 28, 2012)

It's entirely possible to can butter though many of the processes to be found on the net are poorly thought out and not safe. But dried butter as in the butter powder found for sale is an industrially produced product for which there is no home made equivalent. It uses equipment that we cannot reproduce.

Butter powder is not simply dehydrated butter. The butter fat is bonded with the butter solids in such a way as to create a clumpy powder which makes it good for mixes where it needs to evenly distribute throughout. But it also keeps it from melting the way ordinary butter does thus it cannot be reconstituted back to butter the way we usually use and expect it.


----------



## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

Home canned butter is perfectly safe as long you follow the directions, use unexpired butter, and boil and remove the milk solids as directed. You're not left with any thing to spoil because what you're left with is basically a 'fat'. Sealed fat does not require require refrigeration or processing, and is perfectly safe for at least a year. Think lard, shortening, oil -- without the milk solids, it's the same thing. In fact, what you end up with is not really even 'butter' any longer; rather 'glee' which is clarified butter. It is a totally different product.

With sterile jars and lids (as directed), there's no reason to process it in a canner - _*none*_. There are no bacteria in the jars or the butter (after the sterilizing and boiling processes) and heat from the butter seals the jar. The only reason it's put into canning jars is to get a seal to keep air out so it lasts longer.

Canned Butter
Take pint jars and put them in the oven at 250F for 25 minutes. Slowly melt the butter until a white foam forms. Skim off this foam (it's the milk solids). Then bring the clarified butter to a boil for at least 5 minutes. Have the lids and rings boiling for at least 3 minutes. Pour the boiling butter into the hot pint jars almost to the top. Make sure the rim of the jar is clean, then put on the lids and rings. Wait a little while and you will hear the plink of the lids sealing. After it is cool enough to handle, gently shake the jars every 10 minutes or so for about an hour to keep the butter homoginal as it cools.


----------



## Guest (Feb 28, 2012)

It's not the solids that create the problem in canning butter, but any water that may be remaining in the melted fat. Heat the butter long enough to make the solids start to sizzle then you'll know that all of the water is out. Then you can pour into sterilized jars and seal. Give it an occasional shake as it's cooling if you want to reincorporate the solids otherwise they'll float to the top or settle to the bottom.

Just make very sure you have boiled all of the water out.


----------

