The only earthly reason to clarify butter is for pan-frying. If you're
making a sauce or a dip, try emulsifying the butter. You'll need some
acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar or wine. What you do is reduce
the acid with the flavorings, then beat in the butter gradually. The
French have done this for centuries and they got it exactly right.

For artichokes: straight-up lemon butter. For fish: beurre blanc or
beurre noisette. For meat: garlic butter based on white wine.

Now stop all that pointless clarifying and do some proper cooking!

BTW, I never bother clarifying butter for pan-frying. I just mix half
butter and half oil. You get more butter flavor than from clarified,
and you succeed in raising the smoke point.

"l, not -l" wrote:
>
> On 29-Aug-2012, George M. Middius > wrote:
>
> > BTW, I never bother clarifying butter for pan-frying. I just mix half
> > butter and half oil. You get more butter flavor than from clarified,
> > and you succeed in raising the smoke point.
>
> And the flavor of browned butter is pretty tasty; one of my favorite pasta
> dishes is spaghetti with browned butter and grated cheese.

Whenever I cooked fried eggs, I use a small amount of butter in the frying
pan. I will carefully watch the heating. Once it just starts to brown, I
add in the eggs. Seems to give the flavor a slight kick.

Gary

"l, not -l" > wrote in message
...
>
> On 29-Aug-2012, George M. Middius > wrote:
>
>> BTW, I never bother clarifying butter for pan-frying. I just mix half
>> butter and half oil. You get more butter flavor than from clarified,
>> and you succeed in raising the smoke point.
>
> And the flavor of browned butter is pretty tasty; one of my favorite pasta
> dishes is spaghetti with browned butter and grated cheese.

Do they do that in Italian cuisine, or is that more German?


W. Pooh (AKA Winnie P.)

Christopher M. wrote:

> >> BTW, I never bother clarifying butter for pan-frying. I just mix half
> >> butter and half oil. You get more butter flavor than from clarified,
> >> and you succeed in raising the smoke point.
> >
> > And the flavor of browned butter is pretty tasty; one of my favorite pasta
> > dishes is spaghetti with browned butter and grated cheese.
>
> Do they do that in Italian cuisine, or is that more German?

If you were allowed in the kitchen, you could do it yourself.

On Aug 29, 8:56*am, George M. Middius > wrote:
> The only earthly reason to clarify butter is for pan-frying. If you're
> making a sauce or a dip, try emulsifying the butter. You'll need some
> acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar or wine. What you do is reduce
> the acid with the flavorings, then beat in the butter gradually. The
> French have done this for centuries and they got it exactly right.
>
> For artichokes: straight-up lemon butter. For fish: beurre blanc or
> beurre noisette. For meat: garlic butter based on white wine.
>
> Now stop all that pointless clarifying and do some proper cooking!
>
> BTW, I never bother clarifying butter for pan-frying. I just mix half
> butter and half oil. You get more butter flavor than from clarified,
> and you succeed in raising the smoke point.

well......there's a difference in plain clarified butter and ghee.
I make ghee. The slow cooking process results in a lightly nutty
flavor which I like a lot. I use ghee for some things and regular
butter for everything else.

I agree with you that the French methodology works best for a lot of
things but I still like ghee for Indian dishes.

ImStillMags wrote:

> > The only earthly reason to clarify butter is for pan-frying. If you're
> > making a sauce or a dip, try emulsifying the butter. You'll need some
> > acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar or wine. What you do is reduce
> > the acid with the flavorings, then beat in the butter gradually. The
> > French have done this for centuries and they got it exactly right.
> >
> > For artichokes: straight-up lemon butter. For fish: beurre blanc or
> > beurre noisette. For meat: garlic butter based on white wine.
> >
> > Now stop all that pointless clarifying and do some proper cooking!
> >
> > BTW, I never bother clarifying butter for pan-frying. I just mix half
> > butter and half oil. You get more butter flavor than from clarified,
> > and you succeed in raising the smoke point.
>
> well......there's a difference in plain clarified butter and ghee.
> I make ghee. The slow cooking process results in a lightly nutty
> flavor which I like a lot. I use ghee for some things and regular
> butter for everything else.
>
> I agree with you that the French methodology works best for a lot of
> things but I still like ghee for Indian dishes.

Where do you keep your yak?

On 2012-08-29 23:20:59 +0000, ImStillMags said:

> well......there's a difference in plain clarified butter and ghee.
> I make ghee. The slow cooking process results in a lightly nutty
> flavor which I like a lot. I use ghee for some things and regular
> butter for everything else.
>
> I agree with you that the French methodology works best for a lot of
> things but I still like ghee for Indian dishes.

Perhaps my experiene with ghee and clarified butter isn't diverse
enough. Particularly when using ghee in Indian dishes, where many other
seasonings can have significant impact on the flavor profile, I'm feel
quite sure I couldn't tell the difference.

My understanding with both is that it has to do with cooking hotter
than you can with butter. But between ghee and clarified butter and
butter, I've never found a significant different. Tasting the material
right in the pan prior to its use in cooking something else, I'm think
I could tell the difference. But whenever you "brown" something, here
with clarified butter to produce ghee, it also depends on how brown you
consider brown. I had a girlfriend that regularly burned pork chops
and this was what she called "browning".

gtr wrote:

> But whenever you "brown" something, here
> with clarified butter to produce ghee, it also depends on how brown you
> consider brown. I had a girlfriend that regularly burned pork chops
> and this was what she called "browning".

How dreadful. Is that why you traded her to sqwishy?

On 8/29/2012 11:56 AM, George M. Middius wrote:
>
>
>
> The only earthly reason to clarify butter is for pan-frying. If you're
> making a sauce or a dip, try emulsifying the butter. You'll need some
> acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar or wine. What you do is reduce
> the acid with the flavorings, then beat in the butter gradually. The
> French have done this for centuries and they got it exactly right.
>
> For artichokes: straight-up lemon butter. For fish: beurre blanc or
> beurre noisette. For meat: garlic butter based on white wine.
>
> Now stop all that pointless clarifying and do some proper cooking!
>
> BTW, I never bother clarifying butter for pan-frying. I just mix half
> butter and half oil. You get more butter flavor than from clarified,
> and you succeed in raising the smoke point.
>
>
I cook with butter and olive oil like that often.