How To Make Brown Butter

Brown butter is one of the best chef tips to making restaurant quality dishes. Good news! It is super easy to make brown butter. I make a big block of it and keep it in my fridge and freezer.

How To Make Brown Butter:

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 1 minute

Cooking time: 10 minutes

• 500g/1.1lb block butter, salted

Step 1 - Place a 500g/1.1lb block of butter (I don't cut it up) and place it in a large heavy bottomed pot (the heavy bottom prevents it burning too quickly, I like my copper pans for this) and I recommend using a large pot because the bubbles rise a lot.

Step 2 - Heat on medium high heat stirring well. After a few minutes it will start bubbling so watch it as will rise up high and do not leave this unattended. It will start to smell intensely nutty and only takes a few minutes (5-7 minutes). If all fails, your nose will let you know when it is ready. Once you do this once, your nose will always tell you when it is ready.

Step 3 - Remove it from the pan and strain it through a strainer. I then pour it into a container and refrigerate it so that I have a block ready.

Step 4 - Black butter is when you've taken it a bit too far and burnt it. You can sometimes save it by adding some fresh butter and reheating it but that's if you haven't burnt it too much.

The milk solids can be used to season pasta as it tastes like salted breadcrumbs.

Store the brown butter in the fridge. Brown butter will last for 3-4 weeks. Or store in ice cube tray sized cubes in the freezer. The browned butter once chilled will have a grainy consistency but melts down to regular liquid brown butter once heated.