Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Butter, Salt (Scottish method).— Put the butter into a tub of clean water, press it thoroughly with the hand or a broad butterbeater until the water is entirely removed. Lay it out on a board and sprinkle it with salt, an ounce to every three pounds of butter. Work and beat it well. Then make a brine strong enough to float an egg ; add two ounces of loaf sugar, and boil it ; when quite cold, put some of this prepared pickle to the butter, and press and squeeze ofi: the water. If it does not come off clear, repeat the washing in fresh pickle. The kit or tub for storing is filled up within two inches of the top with butter, the pickle thrown on it, and a clean linen cloth over aU. The lid of the kit must then be well secured. Butter Sauce. — Season a cupful of flour with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix it with some water into a paste, and work in a piece of butter about the size of an egg. Put the thin paste into a pan over the fire, and boil it for a quarter of an hour, then take it ofl:', and add some fresh butter in small portions at a time, continually stirring the contents to prevent the butter from rising to the surface. Afterwards add some vinegar and mix thoroughly. This sauce is used with fish and boiled vegetables. Butter Sauce (another way). — Put a quarter of a pint of melted butter into an enamelled saucepan over a slow fire — see that it does not brown — and two well-whisked eggs, carefully stirring all the time till it thickens. Remove before it boils, and pour in a little lemon-juice. Time, about three or four minutes. Butter Scones. — Take a pint of thin cream, salt it to taste, and stir it into flour enough to make a dough of the proper consistency. Knead well, roll out thin, and form into scones ; prick them with a fork, and bake over a clear fire on a griddle. Butter should be served with them ; they are excellent for breakfast or tea. BUT (88) CAB Butter Seasoned with. Pepper.— Work up some butter with powdered pepper, and serve as soon as prepared. Butter and other spices may be prepared in a similar manner. Butter, To Keep, in Summer.— Place the butter-dish into a basin containing water, within two inches of the top. Throw a piece of muslin, which has been well wetted, but wrung to prevent any moisture dripping into the butter, over it, and allow the ends to fall into the water. Or, turn a large flower-pot, around which a woollen cloth has been tied, previously well soaked in water, over the butterdish, and stand it on a stone floor. In this latter plan all that is needed is to keep the woollen cloth moist ; in the former, to change the water every day, and rinse the muslin. Butter, To Preserve without Salt.— Dissolve the butter very gently in a clean pan over the fire. All the watery particles will evaporate, and the curd — which is the cause of the butter becoming rancid — will fall to the bottom. It should not boil. Throw the butter into a clean vessel, keeping out the sediment and excluding the air by means of a bladder tied over the top. "When cool it resembles lard. It will also lose some of its flavour, but it is superior to salt butter for culinary uses, and especially for pastry.