Budd Light=Clarified Butter

(above picture is a bowl of clarrified butter and its original form in a stick of butter)


Most people have heard of clarified butter but don't really know how to make it. Here i'm going to break it down for you and make it a little less intimidating.

Clarrified butter is a must have for many high end restaurants for their dishes. With clarrified butter you are essentially melting the butter and seperating the fat, milk, and water (the three components of butter). By heating it up and melting it slowly, a white yellowish thickness appears on top of the butter. This is what pure buttermilk is. Slowly strain the buttermilk off the top with a ladel. You can discard it or save it in a seperate container.

After you have removed all of the milky viscous on top, most of the water should have evaporated from the butter. What you have left is clarrifed butter. As the sous chef told me: "You want it to look like Budd Light. If it looks like Samual Adams you have done it wrong."

The advantages of clarified butter is its long keeping quality (several months refrigerated) and its high smoke point (can be used in frying and sautéing without burning). The disadvantage is that it doesn't have that same rich flavor of regular butter since the milk solid (the butter) has been removed, but it does have a more buttery taste than other oils.(provided by Wikipedia)

The process is used all over the world:

In England, clarified butter is used in the process of potting, whereby foods such as shrimp and hare are conserved in pots of butter.
In Brazil, it is known as "manteiga de garrafa" (bottle butter) and is featured mostly in cuisine from the Northeast.
In Iran, it is known as "yellow oil" and is used in place of other oils.
In India, it is known as "ghee".
In Egypt, it is known as "samnah". It replaces oil in frying and sautéing due to a perceived superior flavor. (wikipedia source)

It's easier than you think! Good luck!