Butter..

[RYE_TYLER]

Looking for some different ideas. What kind and how do you pack yours??
Thanks, Rye

[turtle fast]

Ive seen the squeeze bottles of Parkay which seemed to do well (not really butter). I also have seen the open ended squeeze tubes that seal with a slotted dowel like thing that had leaked butter that had melted all in a pack. Butter will not hold up well in summer short of an hour or two before melting and later turning bad. In cooler weather or winter hiking you have a better chance. I have had it in small water tight tupperware in cooler temps.

[K2]

I just tried my hand at making ghee; butter with water and milk solids removed. At room temperature, it's hard. It has a long shelf life, and burns at a higher temperature.

This stuff is waaay expensive if you purchase it in the store. I used 1 lb of unsalted butter, and it reduced down to 1/2 lb. You can still use the milk solids in cooking.

I think I did it right; there are recipes on the web. The taste is alright; I may like it better salted.

For me, what wins the day is the fact that I have less chance of having an oily mess in my backpack, not to mention all that heart-clogging potential!:D

~K2~

[Mrs Baggins]

http://www.butterbuds.com/faq/index.html

These sound pretty good.

[mmais68569]

I use a product called Molly McButter
http://www.amazon.com/Molly-McButter-Natural-Butter-Sprinkles/dp/B0005ZXPPW

You can buy it at all grocery stores will not brake down or leak & taste good.

Mike

[10-K]

http://www.butterbuds.com/faq/index.html

These sound pretty good.

This is what I use. It's a good substitute but as you know - there is no substitute for Real Butter. :)

[Seeker]

olive oil.

[BigFoot2002]

Do butter buds have any calories?

I use olive oil in my liptons/knorrs, mac n cheese, and on my grits.

[kanga]

you can buy boxes at sams of the individual butter packets on restaurant tables.

[Shiraz-mataz]

I believe KFC has individual packets of what's described as a "buttery spread." Actual contents are anybody's guess until CSI runs it through the lab! But hey, it tastes like butter...

[Mountain Wildman]

My Sister in law used to keep a stick of regular butter in a butter dish in the cabinet.
It was always soft and spreadable and I don't recall it ever getting rancid or spoiled.
Not sure how long any one stick of butter sat in there.

[Jonnycat]

I used to bring butter, now I bring olive oil in a four (or is it three) ounce plastic bottle with a flip top lid.

When I did bring butter, I would portion out from a cube, and wrap each portion in a sandwich baggie. Each sandwich baggie would have it's top twisted and banded, and all of them would go in a quart-sized freezer bag (ziplock).

Make sure you use regular (not unsalted) butter, as it has a longer unrefrigerated shelf life.

[LimpsAlong]

12 ounces oughta last you!


Red Feather™ Canned Butter
Ballantyne is the world's largest producer of canned butter. Sealed airtight for maximum freshness, Ballantyne's canned butter delivers convenience in the form of extended shelf life and easy distribution without the necessity of refrigeration. It has also proven ideal for disaster preparedness, camping, boating and remote areas where refrigeration isn't available. Each can holds 12 ounces of outstanding, pure creamery butter.

[GalHikingTheGap]

I use a product called Molly McButter
http://www.amazon.com/Molly-McButter-Natural-Butter-Sprinkles/dp/B0005ZXPPW

You can buy it at all grocery stores will not brake down or leak & taste good.

Mike

I loooove Molly with a passion, its a staple in my house as it was in my folks'

L

[thelowend]

My Sister in law used to keep a stick of regular butter in a butter dish in the cabinet.
It was always soft and spreadable and I don't recall it ever getting rancid or spoiled.
Not sure how long any one stick of butter sat in there.

there was no pressure on it. she probably used a decent bit cooking if she did that (wouldn't be able to leave it for long before going bad.. unless she kept the temps in her house really low).

[Farr Away]

I leave my butter on the counter. The temps in my house are not particularly low - 68 in the winter; 78 in the summer. Back when I was living by myself, a stick of butter would often last me a month or so. Never had it go bad.

I am careful about using a clean utensil though.

[astrogirl]

salted butter holds up fine in my cabinets at home at room temp - my house is about the same temps as farr away.

I've carried it hiking too, but not usually in high summer as I don't hike then anyway.

I've been bringing extra virgin coconut oil instead anyway because I can eat it straight out of the jar!

[Tinker]

I bought some ghee from a store for my Hundred Mile Wilderness section hike in 2008. I repackaged it from the glass jar into a cleaned out plastic honey jar. It kept just fine, tasted more like butter than the olive oil I typically carry (important after 5 or more days unsupplied), and, generally, was a success. It still did not taste "just" like butter, though.
For a group on a thruhike I've heard that it's not unusual for a few hikers to chip in for a pound of butter at a market, take a quarter lb. each, and consume it during the next 2-3 days. I imagine it could get quite messy in hot weather unless you had a plastic screw-top jar to store it in.

[Omega Man]

How well does Olive Oil keep?

[Panzer1]

it says on my box of butter "keep refrigerated'.

Panzer

[Farr Away]

A lot of things say "refrigerate after opening" that don't really need to be.

[safn1949]

http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/powderedbuttercan.aspx

Powdered butter,I know it will last quite a while in a ziplock,as in months.It tends to clump when you open the can but it's no big deal.Just mix whith water and use.

It will not keep once mixed on the trail but will keep dry.:D

[vonfrick]

my mom also never puts the butter in the frig and i grew up in philly...

i'm sick of spending the money at minimus on olive oil packets bc last year they were a little oxidized and tasted bitter

i am planning to freeze pound blocks of butter, cut off slabs and vac-seal my own packets. as i do with the olive oil, i'll keep them segregated in their own ziploc in case one busts open (as always happens with the oils)

looking forward to real butter this summer

[Compass]

When you use a saturated fat like butter the "grease" will stick to your pot and be harder/messier to clean up than a nonsaturated fat like olive oil. Cold spring water just will not wash it out even with soap/detergent.

Below 20*F even extra virgin olive oil will be nearly solid but is still easy to clean up. Good light calories.

[kanga]

that is a great point!

[oldbear]

The real disadvantage of packing and using whole butter is that butter has a nasty habit of picking up and converting funky odors into funky flavors ....it also has a tendency to get a little messy.
However from a Food Service Sanitation POV butter is not a potentially hazardous food.
A good alternative to carrying whole butter is to carry clarified butter aka ghee
To make it;
Place the butter in a pot heavy bottomed pot that is 2x-3x the volume of your butter Have a 6-8 oz ladle available and a container to immediatley but your hot clarified butter in
Bring your butter up to a slow boil and leave it there
Initially you will see a big foamy mess of boiling butter that will try to climb up and out out of the pot -which is why you use a pot that is 2x-3x.
In time miot of the foaminess will subside
Be alert and be ready with your ladle.
What will happen next is hard to describe But if you can visually what it looks like when you're flying in a heavy storm ande you finally break -out of the clouds and can clearly see the ground below, that's what your butter will look like.
When that happens
Immediatley turn off your heat and using your ladle, quickly and gently remove your clarified butter .
Do not touch or otherwise disturb the still cooking milk solids on the bottom of your pot
16 oz of whole butter should give you 12-13 oz clarified butter

[Danielsen]

Ghee's a good alternative, coconut oil too.

I'd avoid any packaged wunder-alternatives made from hydrogenated vegetable oils and the like. Cold-pressed monounsaturates like olive oil, animal-derived saturates like lard, tallow, butter or ghee (obviously the first two aren't terribly appetizing) and plant-derived true saturates like coconut oil are the most nutritious and least likely to actually cause you any heart issues.