Butter burns and darkens so fast while melting because the milk solids inside it brown and char at a much lower temperature than other fats; lightly browned butter is still perfectly usable, but butter that has clearly burned and turned bitter-smelling usually cannot be salvaged and calls for starting over.
Why does butter burn so quickly?
Butter is a mixture of fat, water and milk solids (protein and lactose); those milk solids, absent from pure oils like olive oil, settle to the bottom of the pan and brown quickly under high heat, soon turning to char. That is why butter starts smoking and darkening at a much lower temperature than pure vegetable oils do.
Butter melted in a thin pan without a heavy base cannot distribute heat evenly, which can create hot spots at the bottom; those spots can burn fast even while the rest of the butter has not fully melted yet.
Can lightly darkened butter be saved?
Butter that has turned a light golden-brown with a nutty aroma is actually close to browned butter, a deliberate technique many recipes call for on purpose; at that stage, taking it off the heat and letting the milk solids settle lets the clear liquid on top be used as is. Butter that has turned deep brown with a distinct burnt smell, though, has gone past that point and leaves a bitter sharpness behind.
Butter that has clearly burned should simply be tossed, with the pan cleaned thoroughly before starting again, so the bitterness does not bleed into the rest of the dish; trying to mask a burnt flavor rarely works and usually affects the whole meal.
How do you keep it from burning again?
Butter should melt over medium-low heat in a heavy-bottomed pan, stirred constantly; high heat lets the milk solids brown uncontrollably fast. Cutting the butter into small pieces first lets everything melt at the same time and in less time overall, keeping the base from sitting under heat any longer than it needs to.
Butter melted together with olive oil or another oil can withstand a higher temperature before burning than pure butter alone — a common trick in recipes that call for higher heat.
Does salted versus unsalted butter make a difference?
Salted butter can start burning at a slightly lower temperature than unsalted, because of the salt content — one reason unsalted butter is often preferred in delicate sauces. Anyone aiming for a proper browned butter generally reaches for unsalted too, since it is easier to control.
Cold butter straight from the fridge dropped into a hot pan can hit hot spots and brown unevenly from that sudden temperature jump; letting it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before melting eases that risk somewhat. Cutting butter into small, even cubes and scattering them across the pan at once, rather than melting one large block, lets every piece warm up at a similar rate, cutting down further on those local hot spots.
Comments (1)
Küçük parçalara bölmek her seferinde işe yaramıyor, ben yine de bir köşesini yaktım, galiba benim ocağım bir noktada fazla ısınıyor, karıştırmayı hiç bırakmamak gerekiyormuş.
Ocakların ısı dağılımı gerçekten farklılık gösterebilir, böyle durumlarda tencereyi ara sıra döndürmek ya da ateşi biraz daha kısmak yardımcı olabilir.