The Bottled Butter Mis-Adventure

[Angela]

I bottled butter once with some friends. A week after the experiment, we got word from our local extension agent that bottling butter is not safe due to it not getting hot enough to kill botulism . . . guess I won't be doing more unless I figure out another way to do it or find out otherwise. We got the instructions to do it from a food storage book, so just figured it had been checked out. I promptly put all my bottled butter in the fridge and used it anyway.

A month later had this report: The butter jars do not seal well. I've eaten all the butter I canned and have been able to reuse the lids to can other foods (this indicates that they did not use their sealing properties well the first time around). My sister bottled butter in Louisiana and hers was all rancid and growing green stuff within 2 weeks (most things in Louisiana grow green stuff within 2 weeks, but if a bottle is sealed properly the stuff in it should stay good).

Now here's the original post anyway, but I would NOT recommend doing it:

Today we bottled butter. Yep, butter. Now I have lovely jars of butter on my shelf that don't need refrigeration until they are opened. Crazy. Here's how it's done:

Step 1: Wash jars and put them in the oven on 200 degrees.


Step 2: Melt the butter in a pot on LOW. You don't want to cook it, just melt it. 1 pound (1 box) of butter fills 1 pint. We did quite a few jars today and ended up with extra butter, so be prepared with an extra jar or two if you're doing more than a couple of pounds of butter. Half pints also work well--1/2 lb butter per half pint.


Step 3: While the butter is melting and the jars are warming, put your canning lids and rings in a pot, cover them with water and heat 'em up (low heat also).


Step 4: When the butter is melted, pour it into the hot jars, put on the hot lids and screw on the hot rings.


Step 5: Set on the counter to cool. The lids will seal and the butter will separate as it cools on the counter. Here's butter just poured into the jars . . .


And here it is about 15 minutes later when it was at room temperature:


Step 6: When the jar has sealed and the butter is about room temperature, shake the jar and put it in the refrigerator. Continue shaking every 10 minutes until the butter hardens (about 1 hour). Remove from fridge and put it on your shelf. Lovely, isn't it?


Bottled butter has an official shelf life of 2-3 years, but some have reported butter 6 years old in perfect condition. This butter still has the milk solids, fats, etc. so does need to be kept cool once it is opened just like butter out of the package.

[Angela]

So the two main problems with bottling butter were 1-not high enough temperature to kill botulism spores, and 2-jar lids did not seal completely even though they "popped" down.

Chef Tess (http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/) commented on my blog that she pressure cans her butter, and in my half scientific opinion, that would theoretically solve both problems. It would definitely get the butter hotter (hot enough for any other food to be past the fear of botulism growing), and the lids would seal securely since it was heated so long in the canner. You can your butter using the same canning time and pressure as if you were canning meat (check your canner's instructions--I can my meat 55 mins at 12 lbs). Then proceed with the shake shake shake as it cools to avoid separation.

So I called my local extension agent who told me in effect that there is no research to show that pressure canning butter works. (Which also means there is no research to show it doesn't work.) She sent me to the FAQ section of the National Center for Home Food Preservation (http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/questions/FAQ_canning.html#33), but it only discusses the problems with the non-pressure-canned method. The major concern is the possible extent to which the fat in the butter could protect those nasty dangerous little botulism spores which may or may not be present to begin with from cooking to death during the canning process. She told me if I want to bottle butter in the pressure canner to do it at my own risk, but she wouldn't do it and for sure wouldn't do it using the non-pressure-canning method.

So there you have it. I'm not in any real hurry to bottle more butter (I usually just keep a bunch in the freezer), but if I wanted to, I would feel pretty safe using the pressure canning method. But just in case you die from botulism tainted bottled butter, I didn't recommend it. ;)

[Carolyn Nicolaysen]

I'm sorry to disagree with your local extension service but there has been research done. The latest by the University of Georgia. I saw a preliminary report about a year ago and have not seen a final report but at that time they reported that spores remained active in butter even after it had been pressure canned because of the density of butter. Because it is so dense the center does not get hot enough to kill the spores. Butter is canned commercially in New Zealand but no one does it here because it take two processes to effectively kill the spores and that is expensive to do. Why take the risk when we have freezers and can purchase canned butter that is safe?

[Angela]

Thanks for the information Carolyn! I'm with you--haven't tried bottling it any other way since this experiment--I just stock it in my freezer like I always have. I also haven't tried the New Zealand canned butter, but hear it is very good.

[Rizzo]

THANK YOU for warning people ladies! This is a bit of a pet peeve for me. On other sites, people are pretty quick to minimize the risks of canning butter...generally using the 'My Aunt knows this lady whose grandma canned butter and was JUST FINE!' line of reasoning. They seem to have no problem telling everyone that will listen that it will be just fine. I personally don't think its up to me to tell people that its ok to put THEIR families at risk.

Botulism is extremely toxic, and it has no smell or other warning signs. It can cause DEATH. I know one woman who got botulism and was hospitalized and sick for weeks. She felt lucky to be alive...but while she was experiencing it she wanted to be dead. Its JUST NOT WORTH THE RISK. This also applies to canning soups with cream, etc.

Ok, rant over. ;)