Monday, February 2, 2026

Vintage Cookery - Spreadable Butter

 


With the current prices of groceries on the rise I thought sharing this WWII tip for “stretching the butter” might be a really good idea.  When butter was rationed smart housewives had to figure out ways to make the most of what they had.  Butter was one of those rationed foods that was a bit hard to come by so when it was advised to stretch it with some evaporated milk I thought that was brilliant.

 


Using your electric mixture you take a pound of softened butter and whip it on low speed while adding a can of evaporated milk to it one tablespoon at a time.  It is a bit tedious and requires some patience because if you add the milk all at once it just makes a soupy mess.  The most important part of the process it to take your time and slowly add the milk to the butter, scraping down the sides of your mixing bowl as needed, until it becomes a big fluffy incorporated bowl of goodness.  Once it is done you simply transfer all of butter mixture into an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator.  It is nice and spreadable even when cold, melts like butter and even more importantly, it tastes like butter.

 


It takes a pound of butter, 2 cups, and turns it into four cups of whipped butter so if that seems like too much at once, simply cut it in half and only use a cup of butter and half a can of evaporated milk.  I’ve not tried freezing this, but it seems like it might work.  If any of you try this and try freezing it let me know how that works.  Do you think it would be worth doing?