How to Make Clarified Butter
September 6, 2011
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Austin
• 0 Comments
How to Make Clarified Butter
Butter is a versatile cooking ingredient that is the key to many sweet and savory recipes. One way to make it even more versatile is to clarify it. That is to remove all of the water and milk solids from the butter. Clarified butter will help you cook like a graduate of a school of culinary arts.
Butter is made up of three components butter fat, milk solids, and water. When the water and milk fats are removed butter’s smoke point, the temperature at which it begins to burns, goes up making it ideal for pan frying and sautéing.
Clarified butter is used in many cultures throughout the world, where it goes by different names:
- Brown Butter – England
- Beurre Noisette – France
- Ghee – Southeast Asia and India
- Samna – Middle East
No matter what it’s named, clarified butter is a versatile and useful ingredient in the kitchen.
Making Clarified Butter
Let’s take a look at the steps for making clarified butter:
- Melt 1lb (4 quarters) of unsalted butter in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. You may also use only a stick or two of butter depending upon your needs. Be careful not to use less because the butter will burn too quickly
- Let the butter simmer until a whitish foam forms on top. That is the milk solids and water separating from the butter fat. As it continues to simmer, the water will start to evaporate from the pan
- After a minute or two, the steam will lessen as most of the water has evaporated out. Take a ladle or a fine-screened sieve and scrape the white foam from the top
- Remove from the heat and let stand for about five minutes
- Slowly pour the butter into another dish. There will be some white milk solids on the bottom of the pan. Do not agitate the liquid as the milk solids and butter fat will mix again
- What you pour off is pure butter fat or clarified butter
Using Clarified Butter
This golden, slightly nutty liquid is perfect for sautéing. Without the milk solids that burn very easily, clarified butter will stand up to the high temperatures of sautéing. It is also useful for making sauces like Hollandaise and Béarnaise.
Fans of Texas culinary traditions may also like to brush some clarified butter onto their steaks once they come off the grill. All the best steakhouses use clarified butter in this way to increase the flavor of their grilled meats.
Clarified butter will also store longer than regular butter, several weeks in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator or several months in the freezer.
You may also want to keep and freeze the leftover milk solids for popcorn, soups, or gravies.
Of course, most of us know clarified butter as the perfect accompaniment to fresh lobster or crab. However you choose to use it, clarified butter is easy to make and an easy way to start cooking like a graduate of a school of culinary arts.
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs in Austin, Texas. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit Chefs.edu/Austin for more information.
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