suemunzlinger's Recipe

Clarified Butter

Category: Make it yourself

Making Clarified Butter

Ingredients

* Unsalted butter
* You will also need a small saucepan, a spoon, a fine sieve or cheesecloth lined strainer, and a clean glass jar with tight fitting lid to store the clarified butter in.

Directions

1. Gently melt unsalted butter over low heat (you can use a double boiler if you have one) until the butter breaks down and three layers form. The top layer will be a white foam or froth (the whey proteins) and should be skimmed off with a spoon. The milk solids will drop to the bottom of the saucepan and form a milky layer of sediment. What's left in the middle is a pure golden-yellow liquid - this is the clarified butterfat.

2. Once you've skimmed all the white foam from the surface of the clarified butter, and it has stopped bubbling, remove the saucepan from the heat. Let the butter sit a few minutes to allow the milk solids to settle to the bottom even further then strain the mixture through a fine sieve or a cheesecloth-lined strainer. The liquid you collect is the clarified butter (butterfat.)

3. If you've made more than you need to use right then, just pour it into a glass jar, cover it and store it in the fridge (it may turn a bit grainy but should be fine.) Just scoop out a spoonful whenever you need it and melt it in a frying pan to get cooking.