How do I brown butter without burning it?

Browning butter toasts its milk solids, which produces a nutty, caramel flavour from an ingredient you already have. The whole technique is knowing when to stop, and there is very little margin.

Safety

Step by step

1. Use a light-coloured pan.Stainless steel or a pale-lined pan. In a black cast iron or dark non-stick pan you cannot see the colour of the solids, which is the only reliable signal.
2. Cut the butter into even pieces.So it melts at the same rate. Unsalted is usual, though salted browns identically and simply seasons what you are making.
3. Melt over a medium heat.Not high. Butter is about 16% water and 2% milk solids, and rushing means the solids burn before the water has gone.
4. Watch it foam.The first stage is a vigorous foam as the water boils off. It is loud, it spits a little, and it is entirely normal.
5. Listen for the sound changing.When the crackling and spitting quietens, the water has gone. That is the signal that browning is about to begin, and it is a better cue than looking.
6. Swirl the pan constantly from that point.The solids sink and will burn on the base if left. Swirling keeps them moving and lets you see the colour.
7. Take it off at golden brown.The solids at the bottom turn from pale to amber to nut brown, and the smell changes to toasted hazelnut. That is the moment. Thirty seconds later it is black and acrid.
8. Pour it into a cold bowl immediately.The pan holds enough heat to keep browning after the hob is off. Transferring it out is what stops it.
9. Keep the solids.The brown specks are the flavour. Do not strain them out unless the recipe specifically asks for a clear butter.
10. Use it while it is liquid, or store it.It sets solid as it cools and can be kept in the fridge for a week or two, then used like butter with extra flavour.

Tips

• Listen, do not just look. The sound going quiet means browning is imminent.
• Light pan only. You cannot judge the colour in a dark one.
• Into a cold bowl the second it is ready — the pan carries on cooking it.

Common mistakes

• Browning butter in a dark pan — The milk solids are the only indicator and you cannot see their colour against a black surface. By the time the smell tells you, it is usually a few seconds past where you wanted it.
• Leaving it in the pan after taking it off the heat — A hot pan holds enough residual heat to take butter from perfectly browned to burnt in under a minute. Pouring it straight into a cool bowl is part of the technique, not tidying up.

If it doesn't work

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