Thursday, 29 October 2015

Jersey Black Butter Le Niere Beurre, Aka Apple Butter Recipe.

Jersey Black Butter Le Niere Beurre), Aka Apple Butter Recipe - Food.com
Between 1600 and 1700, twenty percent of Jersey’s arable land was made up of orchards.
A great tradition that exists as a result of Jersey’s proliferation of apples is the production of ‘black butter’ or ‘Le Niere Buerre’.

2 kg apples (cider apples)
1L sweet apple cider
500 g sugar
1 teaspoon clove (ground)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (ground)
1/4 teaspoon allspice (aka 1 Saltspoon)
clarified butter

DIRECTIONS

Take 4 pounds of full ripe apples, and peel and core them.
Meanwhile put into a pan 2 pints of sweet cider, and boil until it reduces by half.
Put the apples, chopped small, to the cider.
Cook slowly stirring frequently, until the fruit is tender, as you can crush beneath the back of a spoon.
Then work the apple through a sieve, and return to the pan adding
- 1lb beaten (granulated) sugar and spices as following,
- 1 teaspoon clove well ground,
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon well ground,
- 1 saltspoon allspice well ground.

Cook over low fire for about 3/4 hour, stirring until mixture thickens and turns a rich brown.
Pour the butter into into small clean jars, and cover with clarified butter when cold.
Seal and keep for three months before using.
By this time the butter will have turned almost black, and have a most delicious flavour.
I cannot guess at the amount of time to make, 1-2 days is the traditional time spent.
From Jane Austen's Christmas.
Maria Hubert von Staufer March 1995.

- Jersey Black Butter

BBC - Jersey - About Jersey - Recipes - Black Butter
Local women used to get together to peel hundreds of pounds of apples whilst the men and children would gather enough wood to keep the fire going for almost two days.
The fire was usually lit in the afternoon, after which the cooking would go on all night and well into the next day.
Today, there are only about four groups who still continue to make black butter.

Ingredients
10 gallons cider (45 litres)
700 lb sweet apples, peeled and cut (317.5 kg)
20 lb sugar (9 kg)
3 sticks liquorice, finely chopped
24 lemons, sliced
3 lb allspice (1.36 kg)

Method
Boil the cider until it turns to jelly.
Add the apples, stirring all the time to prevent sticking.
Two hours after the last batch of apples has been stirred in, add the sugar, liquorice and lemons.
In the last ten minutes of cooking add the spice.
Store in jars.

Jersey is the most southerly of the British Isles, located only 22 kilometres from the French coast of Normandy.
Fairly independent, the Bailiwick of Jersey is known as a centre for international finance, and has its own currency, legislation and local government.

A great tradition that exists as a result of Jersey’s proliferation of apples is the production of ‘black butter’ or ‘Le Niere Buerre’.
Made from cider apples, the new cider is boiled over a fire for many hours - up to two days!
When the cider is ‘reduced’ by half, apples, sugar, lemon, liquorice and spices are added.
The mixture is continuously stirred with a wooden ‘rabot’ or paddle.
Production of the butter is a very popular community event following each winter crop with traditional singing, dancing, storytelling and chatting going on into the early hours of the morning.
Although not as common, the black butter evenings still take place.
The tradition also exists further afield. In Pennsylvania USA, early immigrants took the custom with them but renamed it ‘Apple Butter’.

- Black Butter (‘Le Niere Buerre’)
- Jersey Black Butter | Merchant & Makers
- Jersey Black Butter Le Niere Beurre), Aka Apple Butter Recipe - Food.com

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