Brown Butter is a basic ingredient in the professional kitchen, but it’s super easy to make! And it has the power to transform recipes.
The name is very straightforward: brown butter indeed. Well, golden brown!
What is Brown Butter?
Brown butter is the result of melting butter over low-medium heat to separate water, fat and milk solids and cook until solids turn golden brown.
During the cooking process, the milk solids go down to the bottom of the pan and brown (burn) which adds color and flavor to the leftover fat.
That’s exactly what we want in this case!
In French, it is called Beurre Noisette. The translation is literally hazelnut butter, precisely because of the aroma and flavor it gets after cooking. The butter has a very tasty nut flavor.
The process is similar to making clarified butter, the main difference: do not remove the foam formed and cook longer. While Clarified has a very subtle neutral flavor, Brown has a very present flavor.
Brown Butter is used to make hot sauces for vegetables or meats in general. It has a tomato salad: very ripe tomato with the brown butter and salt, and only. For you to see the taste power it has.
Besides being used in pastries for cakes and cookies, usually. You can use just about anything.
1) Butter in the pan
In a large pan over medium-high heat, put the butter to melt. The amount will depend on how much you want or will need in the final recipe. Generally, it decreases by about 16%, the final weight compared to the initial weight.
Melt the butter
The burning process will only begin when all the butter is melted and after the water (moisture) has evaporated.
3) Water evaporating
Once the butter has melted, it will begin to bubble and make a lot of noise. It’s the water evaporating, it’s normal. You can stir from time to time. But do not remove the foam it forms.
4) It’ll foam
Once it has bubbled, it begins to foam. The two stages are very different and it’s when the golden solids begin to burn.
5) Soft foam
It will continue to foam, but it looks different. From point 4 to 5, it’s faster than point 3 to 4. This final sequence is when the butter actually turns the brown butter. You should keep an eye on the point.
And when you get to that point, it is recommended that you transfer from the pan to another pan, because depending on the pan you will continue to cook which can even burn the butter.
