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To Clarify Butter for Jotting

Clarified butter is made by melting butter, skimming foam, letting sediment settle, and pouring off the clear butter oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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To Clarify Butter for Jotting

Ingredients

Directions

Melt and separate

  1. Place fresh butter and cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Heat gently until the butter is melted.

  3. Skim off any foam that forms on the surface.

  4. Let it sit until the sediment settles at the bottom.

Pour off and use

  1. Carefully pour off the clear butter oil.

  2. When the butter begins to solidify, use it with your other ingredients.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Fresh butter
Supplies the fat; removing water and milk solids leaves clear butterfat that browns less easily.

The step that matters

Carefully pour off the clear butter oil. Milk solids settle at the bottom and burn easily, and they cloud the fat if disturbed. Pouring slowly and leaving the sediment behind keeps the butterfat clear and clean-tasting.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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