*Canning Margarine*
I’ve stocked Butter Buds for a long time, but it just doesn’t taste right on pancakes. I was intrigued by Vertex’s article on canning butter (http://www.alpharubicon.com/primitive/canbuttervertex.html), so I decided to give it a try myself. I have a few tips that might help someone else. (The basic butter canning recipe is reprinted below.)
My family is strictly margarine-only, so I bought 5 pounds of Blue Bonnet, 3 pounds of Parkay, and 3 pounds of Land O’ Lakes margarine. I wanted to see if there were any big differences between brands.
You can NOT use whipped spreads or reduced-fat margarine because the water content is too high.
Although many articles say to heat the canning jars at 250° for 20 minutes, I preferred to boil my jars for 10 minutes minimum in a big crab pot first.
As with all endeavors, having the right equipment will make your job easier. A boiler rack (to safely hold the jars while boiling), and tongs make the job much safer.
After the jars had boiled, I then put them in the oven at 250 degrees to dry off. I figured it couldn’t hurt.
I also threw the rings and lids into boiling water for about 10 minutes, then turned the heat down to a simmer.
Once everything had been boiled/heated, I put the jars into a pan so I could easily pour the melted margarine into them. The pan will catch any drips you might have.
When choosing a pot, make sure it is big enough. You must allow for the boiling up of the margarine – it will foam or froth up a bit. You do NOT want to have boiling fat spattering onto your hands or your work surface!
Five pounds of margarine will fill a 6-quart pot about halfway. Three pounds will fit comfortably into a 3-quart pot; but a 2-quart pot is too small. I had to offload some of the 2-quart pot’s margarine into another saucepan. You can see how full it is.
After the liquid had come to a boil and then simmered for about 8 minutes, I poured it into each pint Mason jar using a plastic funnel.
It is very important to give the pot a stir or two before every spoonful goes into the jar. This mixes the water, fats, and other parts of the mixture so that no jar has more water or fat than another.
The directions say to allow ¾” headroom so you can agitate the mixture. Some of the margarine had a large amount of froth – like the head of a badly-drawn draft beer – and it was difficult to see how much headroom there was. When in doubt, fill ‘er up – it’s better to pour off some liquid afterward than to have too much space in a jar where bacteria could have a party.
Here are the three brands about 10 minutes after the jars were filled. Notice the layer of water at the bottom of many of the jars. This isn’t necessarily bad, but you have to shake the jar as it’s cooling to mix the fat and water together. The more water, the more shaking it will require.
It was my experience that the Land O’ Lakes had markedly less water in the boiled mixture.
Here’s the finished product. I eventually had to throw away two jars because they had too much water in them. I suspect that I didn’t mix them up well before ladling the liquid into the jars.
In a few months I’ll pop one of the jars and see how the quality is.
Good luck, and have fun!
1. Use any butter that is on sale. Lesser quality butter requires more shaking (see #5 below), but the results are the same as with the expensive brands.
2. Heat pint jars in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes, without rings or seals. One pound of butter slightly more than fills one pint jar, so if you melt 11 pounds of butter, heat 12 pint jars. A roasting pan works well for holding the pint jars while in the oven.
3. While the jars are heating, melt butter slowly until it comes to a slow boil. Using a large spatula, stir the bottom of the pot often to keep the butter from scorching. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes at least: a good simmer time will lessen the amount of shaking required (see #5 below). Place the lids in a small pot and bring to a boil, leaving the lids in simmering water until needed.
4. Stirring the melted butter from the bottom to the top with a soup ladle or small pot with a handle, pour the melted butter carefully into heated jars through a canning jar funnel. Leave 3/4" of head space in the jar, which allows room for the shaking process.
5. Carefully wipe off the top of the jars, then get a hot lid from the simmering water, add the lid and ring and tighten securely. Lids will seal as they cool. Once a few lids "ping," shake while the jars are still warm, but cool enough to handle easily, because the butter will separate and become foamy on top and white on the bottom. In a few minutes, shake again, and repeat until the butter retains the same consistency throughout the jar.
6. At this point, while still slightly warm, put the jars into a refrigerator. While cooling and hardening, shake again, and the melted butter will then look like butter and become firm. This final shaking is very important! Check every 5 minutes and give the jars a little shake until they are hardened in the jar! Leave in the refrigerator for an hour.
Mamabear
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