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?
I don’t believe you could bake with this without adjusting for the increase in moisture, could you?
ReplyDeleteIf we used a lot of butter for spreading like toast, pancakes, etc., I would try this. But evaporated milk is fairly expensive too.The few cans I have in my pantry were picked up on deep markdown in my baking-almost-every-other-day for school lunches and snacks days. The can which has a markdown price on it was $1.47 for a 12 oz. can)
That said, I think this might work beautifully for homemade buttercream frosting. (I refuse to use Crisco in mine.) If I bake a cake in the near future I will try this (with the aforementioned can of evaporated milk) and report back to you!
Have a good week.
-Meg B.
I wouldn't bake with it myself, but in buttercream frosting? I'd give that a try. I won't use Crisco in my frostings either. I typically get evaporated milk for about $1, but I have always just used a stick of butter and to be honest I think I'm too lazy to do this. LOL
DeleteOh, I am interested in doing this, especially if it spreads more easily. Since you can also freeze milk, I think it should be ok to freeze this. Will try!
ReplyDeleteMakes sense. :)
Deleteif you are using this as a spread on toast (and not for buttercream frosting) would you add a bit of salt? Since most butter is salted and th evaporated milk would dilute the saltiness?
ReplyDeleteGood point Ginny. I would taste it and see, then add some if needed.
DeleteI will do this. Long ago had a weight watchers recipe w butter cottage cheese and Butter Buds mixed together.
ReplyDeleteThat's cool. :)
Delete