How To Make Brown Butter Recipe

Recipe: About Brown Butter Recipe »

Master the art of brown butter with this simple step by step guide! Discover how to get that nutty, caramel flavour, store it easily and avoid any pitfalls. I make browned butter once a month so I've saved all my tips here.

About Brown Butter

Brown butter or beurre noisette is a simple but delicious ingredient in savoury and sweet dishes. It involves cooking butter gently in a saucepan for 5-8 minutes until the milk solids turn a golden colour and the melted butter develops a dark golden/amber colour it starts to smell nutty.

The smell of brown butter is intoxicating and it's a warming scene like caramel, toast and nuts. It's the secret weapon to turn a regular dish into a restaurant quality dish.

But making brown butter isn't just about melting butter! During this process of making brown butter two things happen:

1 - the water evaporates so that the end product has a higher butterfat. This is similar to how ghee or clarified butter is made, however ghee is not cooked as long as browned butter and therefore you don't get the nutty aroma in ghee that comes as a matter of cooking longer. When you refrigerate your brown butter, it will be set to be much firmer than butter as the water has evaporated. You'd be surprised about how much water is in butter - anything from 16-18% of butter is water!

2- The milk solids become grainy and sink to the bottom of the pan. You can choose to keep these in or you can strain the butter. If you keep the milk solids, the flavour and aroma will be stronger and this is fine if you're using it to spoon over pastas or vegetables.

Ingredients for Brown Butter

The best thing about browned butter is that all you need to make it is one ingredient: BUTTER!

Note: I always use salted butter. I never buy unsalted butter because all food needs salt, even sweet items and the salt in butter is never too salty that it is overwhelming.

How To Use Brown Butter

Brown butter is amazing in sweet and savoury recipes (which is why I make it once a month haha!). Here are just some examples using brown butter in recipes:

Savoury Dishes

Ricotta Gnudi with Browned Butter

Spiced Snapper with Buttered Lentil Rice

Creamy Cheesy Polenta

Sweet dishes

Honey Butter Toast

Browned butter basil cupcakes

ANZAC biscuits with browned butter SERIOUSLY, it really elevates them

Baklava with browned butter I only make my baklava with browned butter as it makes it more crisp!

Cinnamon Buns with Browned Butter Glaze

Tips For Making Brown Butter

1 - Brown butter is very easy to make. The only thing that can go wrong is if you don't watch the brown butter and it burns. Watch it like a hawk once the butter starts to bubble up and as soon as some of the brown milk solids appear in the bubbles then remove it from the heat. Your nose usually tells you when it is ready as it will start to smell nutty but not everyone has a keen sense of smell so your eyes are the best help. My guide below shows you exactly what it should look like in pictures.

2 - Some people keep the milk solids in the brown butter, others strain it. I like straining it for aesthetic reasons so that the butter has a consistent colour and texture. When the brown butter is strained it has a slightly shorter lifespan for 2-3 weeks instead of 3-4 weeks in the fridge when it is strained.

3 - Tip: I never throw away the milk solids as they are so tasty! I usually cook rice in the same pot that I make the brown butter in. Just rinse the rice in a sieve, add the rice and hot water and salt or chicken powder to the pot and steam. The milk solids are like a delicious seasoning for the rice or in place of breadcrumbs on top of pasta or noodles!

4 - 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 be quite hard to cut but it melts down to regular liquid brown butter once heated.

How To Make Brown Butter:

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 1 minute

Cooking time: 8-10 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 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.

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.