Brown Butter Stuffing Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between melted butter and brown butter? ›

Brown butter is regular butter cooked a bit longer than usual until the milk solids toast and turn brown. You'll cook the butter just past the melting point. Browning butter creates a magical toasty flavor you don't get with regular melted butter.

Stir the butter the entire time to keep it moving. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam and sizzle around the edges. Keep stirring. In about 5–8 minutes from when you started (depending on the amount of butter you used), the butter will turn golden brown.

You can use brown butter in pretty much any recipe that calls for melted butter, but since the water has evaporated, the volume and moisture content will be altered.

Brown butter can be made with either salted or unsalted butter. Most often it is made with unsalted.

During the process of browning, much of the water evaporates from the butter. So if you start out with 1 cup of butter, you'll be left with just a hair over 3/4 cup of butter. You'll lose a couple tablespoons in the process. This is the evaporating effect.

Why is my butter not browning? If using American butter, there is a higher percentage of water that needs to evaporate before the proteins in the milk solids will start to brown. Stick with it, the butter will turn eventually.

The heavy bottom ensures the butter heats evenly while the light color allows you to monitor the butter's color as it browns. Heat the butter gently over low heat until it has melted completely. I usually stir the butter with a rubber spatula all through the browning process, which also helps it melt evenly.

As the butter continues to heat up, the magic begins: The butter's amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) react with its sugars to create totally new compounds, some of which are brown and many of which have new toasty flavors. This is known as the Maillard reaction or the browning reaction.

Why is my brown butter foaming? ›

The foaming is caused by the water in the butter boiling away. The main reason you wait for it to subside is simply because that means the butter has had long enough to reach a proper temperature for cooking: too cold and the food will absorb the butter rather than fry in it.

It's pretty easy to overcook browned butter and go from brown to burnt. If the butter starts to blacken, I suggest dumping it and starting over (something I've had to do on occasion), unless you want beurre noir which has a different taste than nutty brown butter.

Often described as tasting nutty or toasty, it has a deeper, richer, more intense flavor than melted or clarified butter. Brown butter is traditionally served with fish, but it makes a delicious topping for vegetables such as Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

Stay close to your pan because the trickiest part of browned butter is getting it just brown enough—not too dark or too light. Too light, and it won't have the characteristic nutty flavor and aroma. Too dark, and it may start to taste (and look) burnt.

Browning butter transforms it into a bold, flavorful, uniquely aromatic ingredient that can instantly upgrade your recipes, and all it takes is a little time on the stovetop.

Beyond the point of cooking off the water, you can also toast the milk solids, and end up with what's called "browned butter." As the melting butter froths, under the bubbles you'll start to see the white flecks darken in color.

The actual melted butter liquid won't brown, but rather, the milk solids will begin to brown at the bottom of a pan. Use a heat-proof spatula to stir the browning milk solids off the bottom of the pan so they brown more slowly and evenly.

And, sometimes, melted butter actually produces a more desirable texture. If, for example, the idea of a cakey or fluffy cookie makes you cringe, seek out recipes that call for melted butter, which produces denser, lower-profile results.