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>>>So I found a recipe for canning butter - and cheese.<<<

Great!

Currently there are no ‘Official’ USDA approved home canning guidelines for either of these.

From what I can gather from some sources I feel are pretty reliable, the secret to butter canning is to melt it at a high enough temperature to drive out any remaining water (as this is what will cause it to go rancid) and be careful not to scorch it. Then it is poured into the jars. All the ones I have read about say that it is more solid (less spreadable) than store bought butter (water would account for that) The ‘spreadable’ butters are made by adding oil to the butter and whipping it. Problem here is that in processing and in sitting, they tend to separate unless they are kept chilled. I do plan to try this too (have about 10 pounds frozen).

I have done the cheese. (no approved recipes for this either) For the cheddar, I cut it into chunks, packed the jars and put them in the oven on a cookie sheet. As they melted down, I added more till the headspace was about 1/2 inch and then processed in hotwater bath. (It is acid enough to do that). I don’t believe the Colby cheese will keep as well as the cheddar does. (at least it applies to fresh, so am assuming it would apply to canned)

I have been buying #10 cans of concentrated cheese sauce from WalMart (about $6)and repack it in half pints. I get about 13-14 jars from each can. Put the lids on and hotwater bath process them. Doing this eliminates the waste that we would have before we could use a whole can. A half pint with an equal amount of milk makes a nice cheese sauce for macaroni or over broccoli or cauliflower even asparagus.

These are ones that I cannot sanction (because the official experts don’t recommend it), but I feel confident enough in it that I do it.