Browned Butter

Browned butter. I like it.

 It should be used in everything. In excessive quantities.

I made it on Saturday and used it repeatedly for the follow 24 hours until it was all gone.

It makes food taste a little nuttier/richer and it will make your kitchen smell divine.

It was a good Saturday.

Now you can make it too! It's really simple and a total myth that this is a "chef's only" ingredient. Go look at yourself in the mirror. Stare long and hard. Now repeat after me, "I am the chef in my kitchen and I will ROCK browned butter!"

So let's make some, shall we?

Browned Butter

1. Over medium heat, melt a stick or two of salted butter in a frying pan for about 15-20 minutes. DO NOT BURN.
2. Strain because the foam that develops on top will sink down and burn during the cooking process. It doesn't change the flavor though and I didn't remove mine because I don't have a small strainer.
3. Use immediately or put in a storage container and refrigerate up to two weeks. Remelt in the microwave.

That's it. It really is that easy. The only thing is, it does get kind of scary because the butter doesn't move from one stage to the next nice and smoothly. It kind of goes to one stage, then to the next, and then back again. So, I have a minute-by-minute photo shoot for you to see the entire process

Minute 1: Heat butter in pan on medium heat. Here is how my flame looked.

Minute 2: Melted butter. Nothing more exciting than that.

Minute 5: Lots of foam stuff on top.

Minute 7: Some rapid boiling happening under the foam.

Minute 10: Bubbling foam action.

Minute 11: Foam is going away thanks to the rapid boiling-ness happening.

Minute 12: Foam came back but still bubbling.

Minute 13: Brown foam patches begin to appear. I cheered here because I was beginning to wonder if this would ever happen.

Minute 15: Here is what is going on underneath the foam: browning butter! (At this point I am stirring vigorously and shouting to Andrew "Hurry! Snap it! Did you get the shot?! Can you see the brown?!")

Minute 18: The final stage should be this dark amber color and your kitchen should smell great.

Minute 20: Safely stored away in its container and about to be tucked into the fridge to be used in tomorrow's goodies.  It should be this nice cafe color and if you have stained it, it wont have that foam.

Enjoy!