Butter

[carpet bagger]

Please help me, I don't like to freeze anything except icecream. I have been told I can freeze butter for up to a year. Are there any down sides?

[Fat Guy]

We've never had to test the limits of butter's freezer-life, because we typically cycle through it pretty quickly. But one thing you should be sure to do is freeze the sticks in a zip-loc bag. Otherwise, the packaging isn't all that secure and the butter can become freezer-burned. For spreading on bread or otherwise eating straight, I prefer butter that has never been frozen and is as fresh as possible. But for cooking and baking, frozen butter is useful and the difference isn't really detectable.

[Jinmyo]

I agree. However, I tend to wrap the sticks of butter in wax paper and then in the ziploc bags.

[IrishCream]

Under what circumstances would one freeze butter? Salted butter has about a 6 month shelf life...doesn't it? I go through it so quickly I've never thought about it.

[Vanessa]

I only use unsalted, which has a shorter shelf life than salted. My consumption of butter is erratic, depending on the type of cooking I'm into or mood, so I always keep stocks in the freezer. Butter kept for long in the fridge acquires off flavours. For example, I'm doing a lot of Asian cooking at the moment and hardly touching the stuff. I've never noticed freezer burn and I don't wrap it up more, yet am quite picky about the taste of butter. Maybe it depends where you keep it. Butter certainly does better in the freezer than most other items.

[Marlene]

I keep butter in the freezer all the time, although we do go through it pretty quickly. I only use unsalted butter for baking and cooking, because HW prefers salted butter to put on food. I never wrap it, and it doesn't seem to make a difference, but then, it's not in there for months either!

[mamster]

The main reason we freeze butter is that we only buy unsalted, and butter often goes on sale for 50% off. When I'm in the mood for buttered bread, which isn't often, I have to convince myself it's special butter, so I get something French and enjoy it as quickly as possible.

[Suzanne F]

The main reason we freeze butter is that we only buy unsalted, and butter often goes on sale for 50% off. 

Ditto.

I also second those who say wrap it very, very well. Otherwise it will definitely pick up off-odors.

Previously-frozen butter works fine for making clarified butter, something I use a lot for sauteeing.

[torakris]

unsalted butter can be hard to find in Japan (usually they sell unsalted margarine!? ) and is quite pricey at about $4 for 200 grams (less then half a pound). Every couple months a store close to me will put it on sale for almost half price and I almost buy them out freezing it all!

I have never noticed any problems with it.

[Fat Guy]

I agree. However, I tend to wrap the sticks of butter in wax paper and then in the ziploc bags.

Does Canadian butter not already come in wax paper?

[Marlene]

I agree. However, I tend to wrap the sticks of butter in wax paper and then in the ziploc bags.

Does Canadian butter not already come in wax paper?

Well the butter I buy is in sort of a foil. Can't say I've ever seen it in wax paper

[Rail Paul]

The main reason we freeze butter is that we only buy unsalted, and butter often goes on sale for 50% off.  .

Shop-Rite in NJ has unsalted butter on sale for 99 cents a pound. Government subsidies, aren't they wonderful? Welfare for Cargill and ConAgra, paid for with my taxes.

I'll buy 2-3 pounds, freeze them in freezer bags (marked with the date) and use them over the next 2-4 months.

[Fat Guy]

Well the butter I buy is in sort of a foil.

Standard American butter packaging is four sticks (1/4 pound each) individually wrapped in wax paper, in a paper box. Only the premium brands like Land-O-Lakes come in foil, which is by far a superior packaging method.

I've pretty much stopped buying butter of uncertain provenance. The things they do to it are too gross. But even the butter I buy at Stew Leonard's comes in wax paper -- and that's very good butter.

[Marlene]

Well the butter I buy is in sort of a foil.

Standard American butter packaging is four sticks (1/4 pound each) individually wrapped in wax paper, in a paper box. Only the premium brands like Land-O-Lakes come in foil, which is by far a superior packaging method.

I've pretty much stopped buying butter of uncertain provenance. The things they do to it are too gross. But even the butter I buy at Stew Leonard's comes in wax paper -- and that's very good butter.

Here the only butter I've seen in sticks is unsalted and they are wrapped individually in foil and then placed in a carboard box. All the salted butter is wrapped in foil.

[awbrig]

I love Land o Lakes whipped butter....

[Suzanne F]

I love Land o Lakes whipped butter....

I'm with you, kiddo. It's the best to use for spreading on bread, crackers, matzo, pita, WASA, Finn Crisp, melba toast, English muffins, etc. etc. etc.

[pjs]

Well the butter I buy is in sort of a foil.

Standard American butter packaging is four sticks (1/4 pound each) individually wrapped in wax paper, in a paper box. Only the premium brands like Land-O-Lakes come in foil, which is by far a superior packaging method.

.

I think the wrapping depends on the whether it's salted or not. The more fragile unsalted gets the foil and the more durable salted gets the wax paper. For the past six months I've been using Lurpak unsalted. It doesn't hang around long enough to have to be frozen. I do keep some foil-wrapped L'O'L's in the freezer for emergencies.

PJ

[skybluewater]

I've pretty much stopped buying butter of uncertain provenance. The things they do to it are too gross.

What kind of butter would this be?

(I love butter, usually buy Land O' Lakes. But, since my palette isn't all that sophisticated, I really can't tell the difference between LOL and the store brand stuff.)

[torakris]

Butter in Japan is always wrapped in foil and then a nice thick box, the thing I hate is that it is sold in 200 gram blocks only and when I use American recipes that call for sticks it screws me up.

[carpet bagger]

Thank you to each of you so far. I usually buy French butter, (at the cheese shop Beverly Hills) in a large chunk. Half a wheel, I love to cook with it as it is much richer and can be used at much higher temperature while cooking.The flavour difference is incredible. The butter from Normandy can be eaten straight like cheese it is so good. For me it makes store stuff taste weak and washed out.

[IrishCream]

carpet bagger...do you know the brand? I have been looking for good European butter in the Bay Area and haven't found any.

[Fat Guy]

I've pretty much stopped buying butter of uncertain provenance. The things they do to it are too gross.

What kind of butter would this be?

Cheesemaker Jonathan White gives this explanation of how most commercial butter is made in the United States:

What's more, most commercial butter is made in what the dairy industry refers to as "balance plants", that is, plants that take up the slack when surplus milk is on the market.  These plants buy milk and cream from the spot market by the 5,000 gallon tanker, truck it hundreds or even thousands of miles, repasteurize it, and then make butter.  By the time the cream is churned, it may be a week old or worse, having been repasteurized several times!

http://www.cowsoutside.com/butter.html

I don't have any independent knowledge of the process, and couldn't find anything else about it with a quick Google search, but my preference is to buy from a place like Stew Leonard's, where they handle every phase of production and all the dairy is fresh and has high-turnover.

Also, I noticed that White makes the following comment about freezing in the same article:

Freezing butter does it no harm: butterfat crystalizes at about 60F, so taking it from 35F in the refrigerator and chilling it down to -20 in the freezer does not change its texture. Freezing butter will forestall the absorption of other flavors from the refrigerator (the mire poix, the veal stock, kimchee, etc), and keep the butter's flavor a clean and intense as when it was churned.

[mamster]

the thing I hate is that it is sold in 200 gram blocks only and when I use American recipes that call for sticks it screws me up.

Do you have a kitchen scale, torakris? I always weigh butter (it's 1/2 oz per tablespoon, or 4 oz per stick), and I've gotten to the point where I can usually slice off the exact mass I'm after. An impressively useless skill, since I'm standing in front of a scale.

[beewilson]

I always keep several packs of unsalted butter (preferably French, but English is not bad too - at the risk of offending people, I'd say it is far better than most American kinds) in the freezer, in case I suddenly want a lot for baking or making something like hollandaise and the other day I think I inadvertantly discovered a real benefit, aside from the convenience. I'd decided to make the Zuni cafe orange-currant scones for friends who were coming for afternoon tea, then looked in the fridge and discovered I had no butter. So I got out a pack of frozen butter, hacked away at it and processed it with the flour in its frozen state. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it made the scones even lighter than they would otherwise have been.

[Jinmyo]

I agree. However, I tend to wrap the sticks of butter in wax paper and then in the ziploc bags.

Does Canadian butter not already come in wax paper?

Canadian butter comes in foil. Usually in one pound sticks. I tend to wrap things in wax paper before I put them in ziploc and freeze. Not sure why. But it looks tidy.