I had heard and read about canned butter as a survival and prepping resource for years but had never seen it until doing some shopping at my local IGA super market (a small locally owned chain of community oriented markets) where I saw them stacked on a display. I grabbed one and took it home to try and have made a point to pick one up each time I go in as part of my on-going prepping.
This canned butter was from the Red Feather brand, which is an Australian company which takes Australian and New Zealand milk to make fine and traditional butter and have done so for over 70 years.
Red Feather butter has no artificial colours or
flavours, Each 10 oz ( 340g ) can is made
only Pasteurized cream and salt. Sealed airtight for maximum freshness,
this canned butter delivers convenience in the form of extended shelf
life and easy storage without the necessity of refrigeration, with a manufacturers recommendation of a 2 year use-by,
In ideal, cool conditions, an unopened can could be expected to last much longer than that and it is purported to be shelf
stable for 10 years. I may put a can aside to see how this holds out. Time capsule anyone?
The can itself comes with a plastic cap which allows you to re-seal the can after opening with a can-opener. The conveniently stackable cans have one lip larger than the other. One thing I found is one end of the can opens better than the other. The bottom end of the can has a better lip for engaging the can-opener and once open, the plastic cap closes the can up to maintain freshness. With regular butter I tend to leave the pat out to stay room temp for ease of spreading. In an Australian summer this occasionally leads to a puddle but being in a lidded can I've avoided this with the Red Feather butter.
This also makes it camp-safe to keep bugs and crud out of the butter and also keeps it dry in you store it in an icy cooler.
As far as taste goes, I'd go as far as to say it's sweeter and creamier than the regular butter I buy from the grocery. It spreads nicely at room temperatures, it fries well and is excellent on pancakes, an essential attribute.
I haven't tried powdered or freeze-dried butter but I think the Red Feather butter would make a very fine addition to your long term food stocks. It's a little more expensive than regular packet butter but the added value of long term shelf-life, stackability and good taste means I will be buying it for regular use as well as prepping needs.
