Kitchen Basics: Beurre Noisette/Brown Butter

Beurre Noisette/Brown Butter

Brown butter, or as I learned it beurre noisette (literally "hazelnut butter" after the color), is endlessly useful for its inimitable nutty flavor. You can drizzle it over cooked vegetables, fish, or poultry for flavor. You can replace melted butter in waffles and pancakes with it. You can cook things in it, such as eggs or glazed carrots. You can use it as the base for a sauce, perhaps by adding a squeeze of lemon juice or a bit of fresh sage. You can even make phenomenal ice cream from it.

It is merely butter cooked at moderate heat until the residual water in the butter evaporates (you'll hear it stop spitting when the water is gone) and the milk solids brown. You should skim the foam off the top as it cooks and make sure to take it off the heat a bit early as the solids will continue to cook and potentially burn otherwise.