2340—Various Butters

Softened Butter.—More particularly in winter, when it is very hard, butter should be softened, i.e., thoroughly kneaded in a towel, to:—

1. Extract the butter-milk, which is always present in more or less large quantities.

2. Make it sufficiently soft to mix with the various ingredients of which the pastes are made up.

Pomaded Butter.—After having well softened it as above, put it in a bowl or basin, previously rinsed with hot water and thoroughly wiped. Work the butter with a spatula or a wooden spoon until it acquires the consistence of a pomade—a necessary condition for certain of its uses.

Clarified Butter.—In pastry, clarified butter is used more especially for the buttering of moulds. Put the butter to be clarified into a saucepan, and cook it over a very slow fire until (1) the caseous substances liberated in the cooking process have accumulated and solidified on the bottom of the saucepan; (2) it appears limpid, of a golden colour, and exhales a slight, nutty smell.

Strain it through muslin, and put it aside until required.