How do you make brown butter

Put some butter in a pan and heat it until it gets brown. Careful, there is carryover heat from the pan so go until light brown and it should continue to become medium brown.

I prefer salted butter and then pour it over homemade cheese and potato pierogies! Heaven!

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added 8 months ago

I just did this for the first time a few weeks ago. it's very, very easy. I didn't have any recipe or anything to follow so I just winged it and it went great the very first time. Here's what I did:

Put butter in small pot over low-medium heat. Stir it now and again for fun. First it melt. Then it will foam. Then it will stop foaming. Now's the critical part. Stir and watch. Slowly the milk solids left behind -- the white bits -- will start to brown. Once they're a medium brown (darker than golden brown and lighter than "oops, I burnt it" brown) and the buytter smells nutty, you're done!

Beginning to end this is a 5 to 10 minute process (depending on the size of your pot, the amount of butter, and how much heat you use) but I recommend you practice once or twice to get the hang of it. All it costs you is a stick of butter (which you can keep and use after you brown it).

Enjoy!

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added 8 months ago

Oh, Slock's answer above is right about a few things: 1. Use salted butter. YUM! 2. The pan will keep browning the butter once you remove it from the heat so either stop a hair early or pour it off the moment you're done.

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Panfusine added 8 months ago

So, making brown butter is exactly identical to making ghee??

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While Peter no longer works for Food52 he still thinks up ways to make the website better.

added 8 months ago

Panfusine, I've never made ghee but I expect that ghee doesn't have you browning the milk solids -- just simmering off the water content off the butter. So brown butter is like making ghee and then taking it one more step.

Kkool, I forgot to mention in case you're interested, that step I outlined above where the butter foams? That's where you're simmering off all the water in the butter... leaving behind the butterfat and the milk solids (which are what will brown).

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ChefOno added 8 months ago

Tips: Don't use a non-stick pan; you won't be able to see what's going on. Have a soup plate or other shallow dish filled with cold water handy to stop the cooking process to avoid burning.

Advanced tip: To amplify the taste, pulverize a half-teaspoon of powdered milk in a mortar and whisk into a stick of melted butter.

Panfusine: Yes.

Peter: Ghee is made from browned butter. The browning adds flavor and antioxidants which help preserve the fat.

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