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To Clarify Butter for Potted Things
621. Put it into a sauce-boat, and set that over the fire in a stewpan that has a little water in. When melted, take care not to pour the milky part over the potted things, as it will sink to the bottom.
A two-line method for clarified butter, written when butter was the standard seal over potted meat and fish. The whole point is separation: fat above, watery milk solids below.
- The hingeMelt gently and pour or ladle off the clear yellow fat while the milky sediment stays behind; if the sediment is stirred up, let it settle again before pouring.
- The vesselA sauce-boat set in a stewpan of water is simply a bain-marie. A heatproof jug or bowl in a saucepan of barely simmering water does the same job, as does a low burner and a heavy small pan watched closely.
- HeatKeep the water below a boil. Butter held too hot browns the milk solids and the resulting fat tastes nutty rather than neutral, which is fine for cooking but wrong over potted salmon or ham.
- Skim as well as pourThe original mentions only the milky part at the bottom. A white foam also rises as the butter melts; lift it off with a spoon before pouring, or the seal will look cloudy and speckled.
- Why the milk mattersWater and milk proteins are what spoil under a butter seal. Removing them is the reason clarified butter was used for potting rather than plain butter, and it is also why clarified butter keeps far longer than the butter it came from.
- QuantityButter is roughly four-fifths fat, so expect to lose something like a fifth to a quarter of the weight in water and solids. The recipe gives no quantities.
- On potted foods themselvesA butter seal slows air but does not sterilise. Anything potted this way should be treated as a refrigerated fresh product and eaten within a few days, not stored at room temperature as a Victorian larder would have done.