Follow up for butter canning

Thanks for the great questions ladies. Here's the Q&A on the butter canning:

Q: Why would you can butter if you can freeze it?
A: The purpose in going to the trouble of canning butter is to add to your food storage in the event of the following types of emergencies/situations:

• Job loss- butter can be expensive, it would be nice to have some on hand!
• Oil freeze or super inflation!- trucks/transport vehicles wouldn't be able to get foods to stock grocery store shelves for a period of days, weeks etc?
• Pandemic- what if you were confined to your home for weeks to months?
• Natural disaster- no power (again probably no food in stores for periods of time)
• Evacuation- it would be nice to have portable food!
  

I don't count the food in my freezer as long term food storage, I use it in my rotating 3-9 month supply, so it fluctuates a lot. Something with a long shelf life would be far more valuable depending on the type of crisis that could occur.

If you canned butter once/year or every other year, you'd be in good shape for having some fats that you can cook with if the need arises. Fats are a great source of much needed calories in a food shortage and also you need them to cook with! But keep up on storing your oils too! I recommend & have) the following fats in my storage: canned butter, butter powder, oil, canned cheese, frozen butter, crisco.....

Q: More of a comment, butter that has melted & then "set" again has an undesirable texture- although the taste is okay.
A: Yes, that is true. However, butter that has melted or been caused to melt doesn't go through the same "shaking" process as outlined in the instructions. Doing this re-distributes the fats & solids so they don't separate and lose that texture, I know it's not perfect and nothing will have the same taste/consistency as fresh butter, but this is a great method and addresses that concern to some degree.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The canning of butter is extremely dangerous and should NEVER be done for home consumption. The National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia-Atlanta says that it is not an acceptable way to preserve butter. You aren't "processing" the butter to kills the bacteria...you are only heating the jars to form a seal. This still allows botulism to grow and flourish in the butter....and because botulism is odorless, tasteless and colorless, it can be toxic to your family! Check out their website www.uga.edu/nchfp for more information.


I hope this information is helpful to you all. Keep up on your food storage, it truly is a lifelong commitment, so keep it up- every little bit helps!