Canned butter and cheese

[Sniper-T]

From Idahobob's mentioning about Canning Butter and cheese, I gave it a whirl on the weekend...

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[Sniper-T]

In case anyone missed Bob's post...


OK....here goes:

Butter

Heat butter in pan until almost boiling.
Fill jars to head space line.
Put on warmed lids and rings.
Shake each jar vigorously, about every minute or so.
As the butter cools, it will start to solidify.
When it completely cools the jars will self seal.
Store in a cool dark place, preferably in a basement, root cellar or cold room.
Yield: one pound of butter per pint jar.

We tried some that we canned 3 years ago, and it was just fine.

Cheese

Cut your cheese up into chunks, about 1 inch square.
We have used Medium Cheddar, it seems to get sharper with age.
Put jars (we use 1 pint size) into pan of water. You want the water to come up to the head space line.
Slowly heat up the water, with the jars in it.
Start adding cheese into the jars, letting what you have in it melt, and then adding more on top of it.
When you have melted cheese up to the head space line, remove the jars from the pan of water.
Put on warmed lids and screw down the rings fairly tight.
Put your jars on a rack and as they cool, they will self seal.
Store the same way as the butter.
Yield: about one pound per pint jar.

It is a bit of a tedious process, but if you are like I am, you will get a lot of self satisfaction out of putting butter and cheese up by yourself and not paying exorbitant price for already canned butter and cheese.

Bob
III

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It went about as slick as he implied that it would. I'm going to start a round of testing on these to see how they keep (for me), and continue with some more, in a month or so, if they do well.

Thanks again Bob!

[idahobob]

You are very welcome!:cool:

Bob
III

[slowz1k]

Outstanding post!!!! Will stay tuned. Thanks!

[Evolver]

Looking forward for the update and don't forget that we have a resident volunteer food tester (guinea pig) with us for the lone term tests... Izzy. :)

[bacpacker]

Nice job T. I think that will be getting a shot here before long.

[helomech]

Can you do this with margarine/parkay, or only real butter?

[Willie51]

You are very welcome!:cool:

Bob
III

Bob, Approximately, how long will the butter and cheese keep?

[idahobob]

Bob, Approximately, how long will the butter and cheese keep?

So far.....4 years. I cannot see any reason for them to go bad since we keep ali of ours in a cold room that does not get above 70 degrees, even when the outside temp hits 100.

I would prefer keeping it and all of our other LTS food in a root cellar, but that will not work out in our current living situation.

Sigh.

Bob
III

[xusualsuspectx]

We are definitely going to try this. Thanks for posting!!

[Sniper-T]

I opened a jar of butter last night. 9 days after canning it. Here's the findings:
Seal: tight

Look: looked like butter
listen: sounded like butter
feel: felt like butter

smell: smelled like butter
taste: tasted like butter

Yep... it is butter.

The only thing I noticed that was different than a non-canned butter, is that it seemed to be a little 'gritty' I'm not sure if it is because it just came out of cold storage, or if the consistancy did change. It is sitting on the counter, so I'll check it again tonight and see.

I put this on 1 slice of bread, and ate as is, and on another that I tossed in the oven (still warm from the lasagne); that one melted nicely, and returned to its former self. If the balance is still gritty, I may try heating it a little, and see what that does.

I'll open a jar of cheese tonight or tomorrow

[izzyscout21]

Looking forward for the update and don't forget that we have a resident volunteer food tester (guinea pig) with us for the lone term tests... Izzy. :)

Yep. I'll eat it. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!

[Sniper-T]

Test 2

I opened a jar of cheese last night...

Seal: tight

Look: looked like cheese
listen: sounded like cheese
feel: felt like cheese

smell: smelled like cheese
taste: tasted like cheese

Yep... it is cheese.

I opened a jar of the 'old' cheese. And as the Bob said, it seemed to age further. We buy a container of EXTRA old once in a while, but it is crazy expensive. This looked, behaved, and tasted EXACTLY like that.

If was firm, somewhat crumbly, shredded ok (crumbly), and melted beautifully on a plate of chili nachos (4 yo dehydrated chili).

Definately a success thus far!

[Sniper-T]

crappy pic:

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt140/Sniper-T/Pantry/0926122130a.jpg

[Sniper-T]

Whilst perusing the Archives, I found that this subject had been broached before.

http://www.shtfready.com/threads/95-Canning-Butter

[drissel]

I may have to try this when butter goes on sale again, well will probably try it first and then be ready for when butter goes on sale....

[ladyhk13]

drissel...go to Costco or Sam's and you can get it in large quantities for really cheap. It comes in either 1 lb blocks or 4 sticks in a pkg (both equal 4 lbs I think) and here it's less than $2 a lb.

[izzyscout21]

I'm super interested in doing the cheese..........I like cheese........

[Sniper-T]

I will certainly be doing more!

Now I'm wondering about soft cheese, like a homemade mozza...

[Sniper-T]

I opened a jar of butter last night. 9 days after canning it. Here's the findings:
Seal: tight

Look: looked like butter
listen: sounded like butter
feel: felt like butter

smell: smelled like butter
taste: tasted like butter

Yep... it is butter.

The only thing I noticed that was different than a non-canned butter, is that it seemed to be a little 'gritty' I'm not sure if it is because it just came out of cold storage, or if the consistancy did change. It is sitting on the counter, so I'll check it again tonight and see.

I put this on 1 slice of bread, and ate as is, and on another that I tossed in the oven (still warm from the lasagne); that one melted nicely, and returned to its former self. If the balance is still gritty, I may try heating it a little, and see what that does.

I'll open a jar of cheese tonight or tomorrow

after a couple days on the counter, I opened up the butter again, and it 'settled'. meaning no more griitty. it is as butter should be. I could not tell the difference beteen canned butter and fresh store bought!

If the next couple tests, 2 wks and 1 month, are as optimistic, I will be cannig a lot more butter!

[ladyhk13]

Have you thought about clarifying it before canning? How do you think it would change the consistancy? It would be pure without any water and I wonder if it would solve the "grittiness" thing you talked about.

[moonwillow]

Already been doing butter. I didn't know about the cheese. Going to try it. Thank you for the info.

[Sniper-T]

I might try clarrifying the butter next time!

Side note: I opened the third jar of cheese, and there was a spot of mold. but not on the cheese, it was high up on the top lip of he jar. so that says to me that it was a contaminent that I introduced, not from the cheese itself

and it still tasted YUMMY!

next jar to open is going to be one that I mixed some italian spices into, while it was molten. fingers crossed

[ladyhk13]

Already been doing butter. I didn't know about the cheese. Going to try it. Thank you for the info.

What is your technique for doing it? How long has it been lasting?

p.s. Welcome to the colony and I didn't see in your profile if you are female or not, but if you are we have a Ladies Forum and you are welcome to join!

[Sniper-T]

I opened another Jar last night (not the spiced one), and roughly 3 months after canning, and just sitting on a shelf, it was/is every bit as good as fresh. Hopefully costco will have a sale on cheese before the holidays.

eta: Bob, do you have a trick to getting it out of the jar? be nice if the whole chunk could slide out

[mitunnelrat]

I don't can yet, so I have no clue what I'm talking about right now, but would you be able to line the jar with wax paper or something? I'd think that would allow it to slide out in a chunk and be pretty easy to peel off.

[Evolver]

I opened another Jar last night (not the spiced one), and roughly 3 months after canning, and just sitting on a shelf, it was/is every bit as good as fresh. Hopefully costco will have a sale on cheese before the holidays.

eta: Bob, do you have a trick to getting it out of the jar? be nice if the whole chunk could slide out

Thanks for the update! We'll have to do this next time butter and cheese goes on sale.

To get it out of the jar... how about if you run your knife down in it and cut it into quarters, put the lid on it, run it under hot water a tad then work one of the quarters out? Once you get apart of it out it might just dump out if it's a wide mouth.

[idahobob]

I opened another Jar last night (not the spiced one), and roughly 3 months after canning, and just sitting on a shelf, it was/is every bit as good as fresh. Hopefully costco will have a sale on cheese before the holidays.

eta: Bob, do you have a trick to getting it out of the jar? be nice if the whole chunk could slide out

Putting the jar into a pan of hot water seems to help.

But other than that, chunks it is!

Bob
III

[Sniper-T]

experimentation shall continue!