Nut Butter

A good nut butter mill is an excellent thing to have, but butter can be made with the food cutters found nowadays in almost every home. If the machine has a nut butter attachment, so much the better; otherwise the nuts will need to be ground repeatedly until the desired fineness is reached.

_For almond butter_, blanch and dry the almonds according to directions, adjust the nut butter cutter, not too tight, put two or three nuts into the mill at a time, and grind. When the almonds are thoroughly dried they will work nicely if the mill is not fed too fast.

Brazil nuts and filberts need to be very dry for butter.

Pine nuts are usually dry enough as they come to us.

All nuts grind better when first dried.

_Raw peanut butter_ is a valuable adjunct to cookery. To make, grind blanched dried nuts; pack in tins or jars and keep in a dry place.

_For steamed butter_, put raw butter without water into a double boiler or close covered tins and steam 3-5 hours. Use without further cooking in recipes calling for raw nut butter.

Or, grind dried boiled nuts the same as raw nuts. For immediate use, boiled nuts may be ground without drying.

When _roasted nut butter_ is used, it should be in small quantities only, for flavoring soups, sauces or desserts.

My experience is that the best way to roast nuts for butter is to heat them, after they are blanched and dried, in a slow oven, stirring often, until of a cream or delicate straw color. By this method they are more evenly colored all through. Do not salt the butter, as salt spoils it for use with sweet dried fruits as a confection, and many prefer it without salt on their bread.

The objection to roasted nuts is the same as for browning any oil. Raising the oil of the nuts to a temperature high enough to brown it, decomposes it and develops a poisonous acid.

Hardly too much can be said of the evil effects of the free use of roasted nut butter.

“There are many persons who find that roasted peanuts eaten in any quantity are indigestible in the sense of bringing on pain and distress.... Sometimes this distress seems to be due to eating peanuts which are roasted until they are very brown.”

--_Mary Hinman Abel, Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 121, U.S. Department of Agriculture._