Brown Butter
Making homemade brown butter can be an intimidating task even for very seasoned cooks, and understandably so. The key to success here is all about timing and paying attention. As long as you’re dedicated to watching the brown butter and you’re attentive to it, you’ll have success every time! This guide is all about how to set yourself up for success when making brown butter and some tricks and tips for getting the perfect brown butter every time.
What is brown butter? Brown butter is a delicious sauce created by melting butter gently in the pan until the milk solids from the butter fry in the fat from the butter, creating a nutty, toasty liquid that adds delicious flavor to any recipe.
Can brown butter be made in advance? Yes, you can make browned butter and store it in the fridge for up to a week, so you always have it at your fingertips. I recommend using the browned butter within this period to keep the butter as fresh-tasting as possible. If you plan on making browned butter significantly in advance, you can freeze it (either in freezer-safe zipper bags or ice cube trays) and store it for 2-3 months.
Will brown butter solidify again? Yes, if you refrigerate brown butter, it will solidify again. Thankfully, if you plan to make brown butter and use it for future recipes, you can easily melt it on the stove or in the microwave for a quick addition to any recipe.
How should brown butter look? Brown butter should be a rich, caramelized brown color with little bits (like grains of sand) flecking throughout the butter. Perfectly cooked brown butter should appear like a deep amber color, and you shouldn’t see any dark brown bits within it, as this signifies you may have burned your brown butter in the cooking process.
What is brown butter used for? You can use brown butter in an infinite number of cooking applications, both sweet and savory! For sweet items, I love to add brown butter to brownies or in cookies, particularly this brown butter pecan cookie recipe. When using brown butter in savory applications, I love to add it to roasted vegetables to add decadence to them or to pasta with sage for a classic, cozy dish. The possibilities here are truly endless!
Will butter brown in a nonstick pan? No, brown butter will not stick in a nonstick pan because of all of the fat within the butter. You can make brown butter in almost any cooking vessel, so don’t worry about having any special cookware to make this recipe. The only type of pan I don’t recommend using to make browned butter is cast iron (or any type of dark skillet) because it makes it hard to monitor the browning color of the butter.
Should I use salted or unsalted butter to make browned butter? You can use either salted or unsalted butter to make brown butter, but I recommend using unsalted. The reason is that the flavor of the butter should be toasty and nutty, and sometimes the salinity in salted butter can throw off the balance of the browned butter taste. I’ve also researched and found that salted butter can foam more during the browning process compared to unsalted butter, making it hard to decipher when the brown butter is finished cooking.
Why is my brown butter foamy? No fear here: It is normal and part of the process of making brown butter to see foamy bits develop in the pan. The foam in the brown butter will go away once the butter has cooled and is no longer being actively cooked. What you’re seeing when there is foam in cooking brown butter is the frying of the milk solids within the butter.
How to make brown butter:
Brown Butter
Ingredients
- 1 stick of butter, preferably unsalted
Instructions
- Add the cold stick of butter to a pan (nonstick or stainless steel, it doesn’t matter) over medium heat.
- Let the butter gently melt until it is completely liquid and starts foaming. Watch the butter very carefully after it has fully melted, as the browning process happens quickly.
- Stir the butter as it foams and gently bubbles; this allows the milk solids within the butter to fry in the fat from the butter (essentially creating the brown butter).
- Once you see the little particles (like little grains of sand) in the melted butter start to turn a light brown color, immediately remove the pan from the heat and continue to stir it. There will be carry-over cooking from the heat in the pan, so you want to make sure to remove it from the heat of the stove right when you see color develop in the butter, or else it will burn very quickly.
