Butter Up!

As I continue experiments in cooking, I found a recipe I want to try that requires clarified butter. So I made some!

First, you put unsalted butter in a pot and melt over low heat. Seems if you do this with salted butter, the amount of salt that gets into the clarified butter can vary rather wildly.

Then you strain the melted butter through a few layers of cheesecloth.

Then you let whatever might have gotten through the cheescloth settle and/or float to the top. The stuff that floats, you skim off.

If you look close you can see that the bottom of the measuring cup is slightly lighter yellow. that is the milk solids we are eliminating. I put that in the fridge and then when it was solid, scraped the clarified butter away from the solids.

I am leaving the jar open on the counter for a bit to let the water evapourate. Then you can store either in the fridge or keave on the counter. Apparently, clarified butter stays good at room temperature for a very long time. 2-3 months supposedly. Apparently it is the milk solids that go bad. At any rate, stay tuned for my next experiment.

ciao