Comments on: Elements of Cooking: Brown Butter

By: Medini

Medini — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Lovely post. The aroma itself gets you. I make ghee often….and it is divine!!!

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

you WERE adding water to hot oil. perhaps you didn’t add enough to cool it down. but some spatter is all right.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

So in other words, don’t be chicken? Go gonzo and add enough lemon juice to cool it down all at once?

I stopped adding juice when it started to spatter.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

When I tried to make brown butter, i took the butter up to the color I wanted, and tried adding lemon juice as per the instructions. The butter fat popped as if I was adding water to oil. I assume I had the fat too hot? What could I have done differently?

By: Nita Marie

Nita Marie — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I just created “brown butter” by accident as I melting butter in a pan in preparation for mac n cheese. After I saw the butter in the pan turning brown, I immediate began stirring it, took it off the burner and then hit the bottom of the pan with some cool water from the sink. To my dismay, it certainly smelled fine. I thought, wow, I certainly don’t want to waste all this good butter. I wonder if I can find a recipe using ‘browned’ butter and save it for later. I had intended on re-melting a new half stick of butter; however, when I googled “brown butter”, I found (to my dismay) that “brown butter” is popular. I’m so excited I discovered it!

By: Erika

Erika — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

You can prevent overbrowned butter by putting a couple of inches of cold water into something large enough to dunk the bottom of your butter browning pan (I use my roaster, as I brown butter in a skillet) before you get started. When the butter gets to the color you want, shock the pan, and the cooking will stop instantly.

By: Erika

Erika — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

ryan, you want both the liquid fat and the browned solids.

lynette, the recipe should account for the moisture, and there’s not enough to really throw off the recipe, i don’t think. i’d go easy on the lemon or just do it to taste, some lemon will be good–lemon and brown butter is a common pairing.

By: Lynette

Lynette — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Thanks. I needed a little encouragement, a little nod. I can do this now.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Pasta + browned butter + good parmigiano reggiano + fresh pepper= dinner for 1 or a dozen, easily.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

So, do you want the solids or the liquid or both or either?

By: Lynette

Lynette — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

If the liquid is evaporated during the browning process of the butter, do I need to adjust the amount of butter or liquid in my recipe? I want to make a brown butter poundcake, to make decadent even more so, but I’m a bit worried about the liquid content. Also, another question, should I leave out the lemon extract and just stick with almond and vanilla? What do your tastebuds think? Thanks for your help.

By: Connie

Connie — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I will have to try that. Everytime I cook butter it comes out black. I have an electric stove and that thing is impossible to turn down the heat but I will try it.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Oh baby…. Just had another bowl o’that crockpot. Delicious. It’s not black, it is brown. Brown is good. Basically the keep warm caramelized the onions and carrots and celery which made most of tha stock. The pigs feet, bacon and bits of sausage just gave it some body and character. It looks a lot like the color of onion soup without the cheese o’course. Brown is good.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Well, came home tonite to my crockpot on keep warm. Been there for hours… and my pigs feet and vegetables are now kinda black looking. This is not a good sign. But the flavor is there and the smell is there. But the beautiful pigs feet and veggies I had for lunch are now looking kinda black. Black in my kitchen is never a good thing. But the flavor is there. Easy enough to strain the juices… I am now thinking corn bread. Last time I made it in a cast iron pot… not so good. It picked up an iron layer o’taste.
Who said cast iron is the be all and end all of perfect cooking pans?.
Well the good news is that I got rid of my veggies that needed to be used or … and it didn’t take a pizza to do it.
I am also thinking of baking a nice bread with the crockpot stock. I guess the moral o’ tha story is keep warm is not keep safe. shut it down and freeze it next time.

By: S. Woody

S. Woody — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

“An eyeball thing.” Without the intention, you’ve given another reason not to use non-stick cookware, which most of the time is dark in color. How can anyone tell what color anything in a pan is, when the pan itself is already black?

(Yes, I intend to get new cookware when I can afford a new set. Bad me.)

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

How do you know if you’ve gone too far in the browning process? Is there a temp range like working with sugar, or is it an eyeball thing?

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

it’s an eyeball thing. trial and error. practice.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Has anyone tried to make Hollandaise with brown buttter????? hmm… interesting. Ruhlman is right butter is extremelly versatile and the go to ingredient when you need to add a little fat to the dish. Black butter doesn’t seem right somehow. I don’t think the color black is found in cuisines and when it happens in my kitchen it is usually not a good sign.

By: Dick Black

Dick Black — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Why thank you Bob, we always appreciate your POV.