"But as to our black butter, do not decoy anybody to Southampton by such a lure, for it is all gone. The first pot was opened when Frank and Mary were here, and proved not at all what it ought to be; it was neither solid nor entirely sweet and on seeing it Eliza remembered that Miss Austen had said she did not think it had been boiled enough...Such being the event of the first pot, I would not save the second, and we therefore ate it in unpretending privacy; and though not what it ought to be, part of it was very good." (Le Faye, #63)

According to Le Faye's notes, black butter was "a conserve also known as 'apple butter', (Letters, p. 396).

I know it by the name of apple butter and it is delicious indeed, when it is made properly, but although it did not turn out quite how it was meant to for JA, it sounded as if she enjoyed it nevertheless!