Eggs and dairy

How to brown butter

Cook butter past melting until the milk solids toast and it smells nutty.

Step by step

  1. Cut the butter into pieces and melt it in a light-colored pan, so you can see the color, over medium heat.
  2. Swirl the pan as it foams and crackles.
  3. Watch the bottom: tiny brown flecks appear and it smells like toasted nuts.
  4. Pour it into a heatproof bowl right away, scraping in the brown bits.

How you know it's done

The butter is amber, the flecks are brown (not black) and it smells nutty, after 5 to 8 minutes.

Common mistakes

  • A dark pan, which hides the color until it is burnt.
  • Leaving it in the hot pan, where it keeps cooking.

Simmerbee recipes that use it (2)

In those recipes the word is underlined in the steps; tap it for the short version. In hands-free cook mode, ask “How do I brown butter?”

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