Butter is the rare product that comes out of a freezer genuinely unchanged.
Which has not stopped a fair amount of received wisdom accumulating around it.
“Frozen butter is never the same”
It is. Freezer damage in dairy is water turning to ice and tearing structure apart,
and butter is 80% or more fat — there is very little water to do the tearing.
Flavour and texture come back indistinguishable.
“A month or two at most”
Considerably longer. Salted butter keeps up to nine months,
unsalted up to six, clarified butter up to a year. Salt acts as a preservative,
which is why the salted figure is higher.
“You have to repack it”
Not if it is unopened — the factory wrapper is fine, just put the pack in a bag.
Opened butter does need wrapping tightly, because it absorbs freezer smells like a sponge,
and unsalted absorbs them faster.
“Frozen butter is awkward to use”
This one is backwards, and it is the most useful thing in the article.
Shortcrust pastry and scones want butter that is very cold and finely divided.
Grate frozen butter straight into the flour on a coarse grater —
it does not melt in your hands, it distributes without rubbing, and the pastry comes out
flakier than the usual method produces.
“You need to thaw it first”
For baking and frying, no — it goes in frozen. For spreading, grate it and it softens in
about a minute. The microwave is the one route to avoid: butter melts unevenly and separates.
“Compound butter does not freeze”
It freezes best of all. Mash soft butter with garlic, herbs or lemon zest, roll it into a
log in parchment, freeze. Slice off a coin onto a hot steak and the sauce makes itself.
Three months.
More on this:
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Can you freeze hard cheese ·
Why cookies spread ·
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