Last Thanksgiving an uncle brought two small bowls of creamy brown butter, speckled and flecked like quail eggs. We had never seen butter like this, and the taste came as something of a revelation.
It possessed the rich nuttiness of dark caramel, without the sweetness. It tasted roasted and full of warmth - cool on the tongue, like regular butter, but with a full flavor that had hints of walnuts, burnt sugar, and toasted bread. It was utterly delicious. We had to stop ourselves from eating it with a spoon.
Turns out this is really a simple thing: cook down a stick of butter until it's brown. Combine with another stick of butter, salt to your taste, and whip. Put on everything.
Click for step-by-step photos and recipe...
my mom uses brown butter in place of regular butter in her fruit tart crusts. minus the salt.
view abby's profile
Wow - that sounds great. Does she combine it with another stick like I do here, or does she use only browned butter?
view faith's profile
"Don't be fooled-it's delicious."
That's too funny!
Good technique by combining it with whole butter to create a compound butter. The cooled brown butter on it's own would be to hard and waxy and separated.
Try it with fresh trout filets, thyme, golden raisins and little squeeze of lemon.
view art's profile
Ooh, the trout sounds incredible. I recently mastered a blue cheese and grit souffle that would pair with a brown butter trout perfectly. Thanks for dinner ideas.
view FalafelMama's profile
My favorite slow cooked dish is pot roast with potatoes and carrots.
view jjy045's profile
We use a similiar version of this every time we make popcorn... we just do the browned butter part and pour it over plain popped popcorn and then salt it... delish! I never thought to combine it with another stick to use as a spread-- genius!
view foodnonsnob's profile
faith,
she just uses the browned butter. i'll forward a recipe to you and you can check it out if you'd like.
view abby's profile
my (new) favorite use for brown butter - as a sauce for egg noodles and feta cheese. the new ultimate comfort food in my house.
view alexia's profile
I brown my butter in an enameled skillet so I can monitor the color better.
view Matcha's profile
thanks faith, this sounds great. i think i'll roast a chicken with brown butter this weekend...
view spo 's profile