how do you contain your butter

[thystledown]

Dec 18, 2015 16:31:31 GMT -5 terizjean said:

How do you guys get your butter out of the molds? I tried briefly microwaving it but then I lost the pretty pattern.

I found that salting my butter really heavily has been good to get the whey out of it --I do this several times and after I rinse it in icy water it actually needs to be salted again. The osmotic pressure of the salt pushes the whey out; anyway, I haven't had any problems with the butter smelling sour at room temperature since I started to do that. DH will N.O.T. eat any butter that smells even slightly sour and believe you me, he checks.

I have an old heirloom mold that is even wired to hold it together where the wood checked (dry cracked).  I soak it in very cold water and then pack the 1/4 lb of butter tightly in the mold, using a metal spoon to work it a bit and get the last liquid out.  It is a round mold obviously, with a plunger.  I set it on the wax paper and smack down on the plunger.  Then as I lift the mold, I make sure the butter sticks to the paper.  I may use a finger on the edge of the pat if necessary.  Since I make more than 1/4 pound at a time, I don't want to put the mold in the fridgeeach time to cool.  But my butter is washed in cold water and is very waxy.  It comes out just fine.  I just keep making pats till I run out of butter, then freeze them all as I described above in the pic with the molded butter.  When I'm done, I rinse the mold in warm water, towel dry with paper towels, and coat it with mineral oil all over.  That will soak into the wood to help preserve the mold and prevent further checking.  I'm wondering if old, well seasoned molds release their butter better than new molds--kind of like cast iron cook ware.  Now, I have not tried using the mold in the middle of the summer.  This is winter butter being made in New York in December--but we have been in the 50's and the house is always 72.  The water is very cold well water.

[justonecow]

We are on city water now, the other house had well water, and it was much harder to wash butter this summer w/the city water which is not as cold as the well water. I am glad it's at least cool enough to make the water colder now that we are making lots more butter.