Brown Butter
Add an extra dose of nutty, caramelized flavor to your recipes with brown butter! Learn how to easily brown butter with these detailed step-by-step instructions and tips.
Equipment
- Light-colored skillet or sauté pan
- rubber spatula
- Heat-safe bowl
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter cut into cubes (or whatever amount of butter your recipe calls for)
Instructions
- Place butter in a light-colored skillet over medium heat and melt the butter.
- As you continue to cook the butter after it's melted, it will begin to bubble as the water cooks out of the butter, and the butter will become bright yellow. Stir the butter occasionally during this phase, and be careful of any splatter.
- The bubbles will turn to foam, and the milk solids will begin to toast. Stir the butter more frequently during this step and keep a very close eye on the color of the milk solids and butter.
- When the milk solids are a light amber color and the butter begins to turn from yellow to golden in color, remove the pan from the heat and immediately (but carefully) pour the browned butter into the heat-safe bowl to stop it from cooking further. Be sure to scrape all of the browned bits from the bottom of the pan into the bowl with the butter.
- Let the browned butter cool slightly (5-10 minutes) before using so it's not too hot when mixed with the other recipe ingredients, or let it cool completely before storing.
Video
Notes
Storage: Let brown butter cool completely before sealing in an airtight container and storing. It can be stored in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Perfectly browned butter will be a warm golden color with amber colored milk solids and will have a rich, nutty, and beautifully caramelized flavor. Butter that's still yellow with light brown milk solids is under-browned and will have a lightly nutty flavor. If the butter begins to turn brown with deep brown milk solids, the butter has burned and will have a bitter flavor.
Do not look away from the pan. This is my number one tip for browning butter. The transformation happens quickly, especially once the butter begins to foam, so avoid any distractions and resist the urge to look away or you'll risk burning the butter.
Stir the butter or gently swirl the pan as the butter cooks. This helps to keep the milk solids from sticking to the pan and helps you to see what's happening under the bubbles or foam on top.
Don't leave browned bits in pan! These toasted milk solids hold most of the flavor of browned butter, so be sure to scrape them into the bowl with the butter.
To keep butter from burning, be sure to transfer the brown butter to a bowl as soon as it's perfectly browned, or it will continue to cook in the hot pan. If you're nervous about burning the butter, you can even remove the pan from the heat when it's getting close and let the residual heat from the pan finish the browning process.
