In May of 2021, I posted a "6 month taste test" of my home canned butter. At the time, I was thrilled it was so wonderful yet at six months but now, in 2022, how is it?
I'm thrilled to say last night I grabbed one of the 2020 jars of home canned butter and opened it for a taste test and... it was perfect! A beautiful 'butter yellow' color and the taste? As perfect as the day I canned it.
I'm extremely happy with it!
Here is a copy of part of my original "six month" taste test of my home canned butter - but I can attest that after almost 18 or so months out, it's still as perfectly delicious as the day it was canned.
ORIGINAL 2021 post:
Last fall I finally canned butter in a pressure canner. This post is a follow up on the 6 month mark and a taste test.
Something a million other women and men have done but I had not, was canning butter.
I didn't know if it was going to work out or not, but I wanted to try and thanks to good sale at our local membership warehouse, my freezer food storage had some 'extra' butter I could do a trial run with and not be too upset if it didn't turn out.
You can find many tutorials online and at youtube for canning butter.
My post today is the 'AFTER' of pressure canning butter.
I have a Presto brand, 23 quart pressure canner. This is an 'after thought' but I need to mention it because it's important... if you haven't bought a pressure canner yet and you have a GLASS TOP ELECTRIC STOVE then you need to be careful of the brand and style you buy! Many are not recommended for glass top stoves because they will crack them. I have a glass top stove, which I've always used for water bath canning but I had to be careful when I purchased my pressure canner.
This also probably goes without saying if you've been doing your research on canning butter - but you never trust water bath canning for items like butter. And even then - always use brand new, good quality lids so know you have a new seal.
My butter was canned in October 2020. I wanted to wait to do the first taste test and seal test at about 6 months.
I had to work hard to get that seal off. That was the first good sign.
When I opened it, it smelled like... butter. There wasn't much of a scent at all - which is good.
It was just... butter. That sounds almost too simple but there you go. It was just... spreadable, creamy, real butter.
It had good, even color. It had a light, fresh, 'buttery' smell.
I don't typically 'lick my finger' or a butter knife with just butter on it because I'm not a fan. But for this test, I felt I needed to taste it by itself. I have a crazy good sense of smell and sense of taste - like - oddly good. I get it genetically from my Dad and my paternal Grandmother. So taste test I did.
And... it was good. Not only good but it was SO good!
It was seriously, 'sweet cream butter'. So light, creamy and good.
Not even a smidgen of off taste. Not a smidgen of even the taste of room temperature butter - which I thought it would since it's... room temperature. But since there is no air, it tastes as fresh as the day you canned it.
It was so incredibly sweet and light and... buttery.
Why did I want to can butter?
For my readers who are thinking "Why would you can butter!? Just buy it at the store or put some in the refrigerator or freezer!", this is why I personally wanted to.
I do keep butter in our freezer for longer term storage.
Butter is a food item I never want to run out of! I use a lot of butter in our day to day meals and baking!
I
will always keep butter in the freezer as part of my well stocked
kitchen/pantry, but I know first hand about storms and power outages.
We personally have friends and family who have had weather related
storms in the past (the Iowa Dericho... I'm looking at you!) who lost
power for over THREE WEEKS. We personally went without power and water for 5 days during an ice storm in Tennessee.
Even
if you have a generator - you have to have one large enough to run the
multiple appliances you need or want, and you may have to pick and
choose what gets power and what doesn't. One of my good friends had a
generator but the first week of the Iowa dericho storms, her husband had
to literally spend all day finding gas. He ended up having to drive 3
hours away to find gas. That was a 6 hour trip just to find gas for
their generator for a storm that was contained to a rather 'small' area.
Imagine if it had been even more wide spread.
I want the ability to have butter for meals for my family in the event of an emergency of any sort or to take with when we go camping, on vacation, etc.
You can buy canned butter.
Commercially canned butter like Red Feather brand
- currently about $200 for a case of 24 little cans. The cans are
about the size of a can of tuna. So, 24 cans for $200 verses me canning
24 half pints for about $16 (based on the current price of butter at my
local membership warehouse where I bought two 4-packs for a total of 8
lbs. fresh, sweet cream butter yesterday as it was on sale for about $8
for 4 - one pound packages.)
Basically, I want to have the option of having and storing butter without depending on electricity.
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(Tiny
update the next day... I made another 18 jars yesterday. Finished the
'shaking' during solidifying process last night around 9:15 pm. What a
great feeling to see the fruits of your labor!)
2022 PHOTOS
Thrilled! That's how I felt about this can of 2020 canned butter last night. It was just as perfect as the day it was canned in the Fall of 2020.
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