What does it mean to clarify butter?!
Answers: I have a recipe that says to clarify the butter and I am wondering what that means. Please help. Thanks.
Clarified butter is butter that has had the milk solids and water removed. One advantage of clarified butter is that it has a much higher smoke point than regular butter, so you can cook with it at higher temperatures without it browning and burning. Also, without the milk solids, clarified butter can be kept for much longer without going rancid.
It is very easy to make clarified butter. Melt the butter slowly. Let it sit for a bit to separate. Skim off the foam that rises to the top, and gently pour the butter off of the milk solids, which have settled to the bottom. A stick (8 tablespoons) of butter will produce about 6 tablespoons of clarified butter.
Another method is to simmer the butter in a saucepan until the mixture separates. After the water has evaporated, the milk solids will begin to fry in the clear butterfat. When they begin to turn golden, remove the pan from the heat and pour the butter through a fine strainer lined with damp cheesecloth into a heatproof container. If the cheesecloth is damp, all the butterfat will pass through, otherwise some will be absorbed by the cloth. This method is a little fussier, but produces a clearer result.
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Clarified Butter
1 lb butter—melted
1 cup oil —Olive or Cottonseed
Melt butter in a plastic container and refrigerate covered.
When the yellow fat has solidified, pop it off and scrape any residue off the bottom. This yellow fat, 80% of the butter, is clarified butter. You can use it by itself, but it is improved by the addition of some oil.
Melt the clarified butter and add a cup of oil for each original lb of butter. Store in a covered container, as it picks up odors.
Olive oil is best for flavor. Cottonseed oil is best for high temperatures in sautéeing. At about 400 degrees F the yellow color in the clarified butter breaks down and the butter becomes clear. This is when it is best to add food to be sautéed.
Regular butter burns because of the milk solids in the whey of butter. You can add the whey that is not used in making clarified butter to white sauces.
heat it until it become clear
then sift out any cloudy parts with a strainer
to heat it until the fat and milk solids seperate, the liquid is the clarified butter
It means to melt it until the milk solids (white lumpy stuff) starts to fall to the bottom. Strain them out and the remaining golden part is claified butter, known in Indian cuisine as ghee.
You can also melt the butter the chill it and the butter will harden and the milk fat will stay liquid only use the hard part.
Melt the butter, when it is clear, skim off in floating solids and then pour off the clear part, discarding the solids in the bottom of the pot. The clear golden liquid is the clarified butter, known in India as Ghee.
Heat it and then skim off the fat on top then the butter should be clear......
Clarifying butter means heating unsalted butter to separate the milk solids and water from it. This is done to raise the smoke point, allowing the butter to be used at substantially higher temperatures. It also removes a lot of water, which can thin many sauces.
You should start out with considerably more butter than you need in the recipe, as clarifying butter will remove much of the solids and liquids. This will cause a substantial reduction in volume. By the time you are finished, you should expect to have roughly 1/3 (maybe 1/2 if you are very lucky) of the butter that you started with.
Heat the butter slowly in a decent sized pan. You want to use a low heat and take your time, as many recipes call for the butter to be melted without any stirring. If you clarify at too high a temp, it will start to burn before it is entirely melted. If the butter starts to melt to quickly, you might need to stir it a little bit; otherwise, keep movement to a minimum. Once the butter is fully melted, use a skimmer or spoon to remove the matter and grease floating on the surface. As you do so, you can tilt the pan slightly to help you remove all of it.
Once all of the surface grease has been removed, you need to remove the solids that are on the bottom of the pan. You can do this in several ways. The simplest is by simply draining the liquid out of the pan, being careful to leave the solids behind on the bottom. A better and more thorough method is to pass the butter through cheesecloth to remove the solids.