- 2 days ago
In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef and culinary instructor Frank Proto shares 15 butter hacks that will make your food better. From butter-basting steak, making rich brown butter and compound butter, thickening gravy, finishing pasta sauces, and softening butter fast for baking, these easy butter tips will help you get more flavor from one essential ingredient.
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00:00Today we've got butter hacks, tips and tricks that will take your cooking to the next level.
00:08One of the ways we use butter in the professional kitchen is that we butter-based things.
00:12It adds flavor, but it's also going to add this nice crusty texture on the top of our
00:17steak.
00:17You can see we cooked the steak on high heat to start that browning process.
00:21Now I'm going to lower my heat down just a little to like a medium heat.
00:25I don't want my butter to burn.
00:26Now we want to add that nice golden crust.
00:29I'm going to take some nice knobs of butter.
00:33Don't be shy with this.
00:35Okay.
00:35You'll want to add enough butter so that we can actually coat the steak.
00:39A couple of sprigs of thyme.
00:40You can use rosemary.
00:42You can use whatever aromatic that you like.
00:44And then I have a little garlic, just going to give that a light smash.
00:48Don't worry about the peel.
00:49This is for flavor.
00:51We're not going to serve this with the steak.
00:52Now as my butter starts to brown and I start to get those really nice nutty flavors, I'm
00:58just going to take the butter.
01:00I'm going to start spooning it over the top of my steak.
01:04As the butter browns, it's going to help the steak get a nice crust on the outside.
01:10There we go.
01:11If you ever want to get people hungry, this is the way to do it.
01:15Baste your steak with butter, herbs, and garlic.
01:18You can do this with pork chops, fish, seafood, chicken.
01:23Butter basting works for all of these things.
01:25I'm going to stop basting once I see that I'm getting the crustiness that I really want.
01:31Look at this steak.
01:32It is absolutely gorgeous.
01:34It has a beautiful crust.
01:36So our steak is rested.
01:37It is time to slice.
01:39I'm going to take off the bone.
01:41There's a bone in rib eye.
01:42It has a beautiful crunchy crust to it.
01:45That butter, that garlic, that thyme is going to add to our flavor.
01:51I'm going to hit it with a little bit of sea salt, a little more fresh thyme.
01:56You can see that we have that beautiful crust on the outside.
01:59Let's give it a taste.
02:02It's crusty, salty, it's caramelized on the outside.
02:06The meat is super tender.
02:07You can taste the butteriness, but it doesn't overshadow the steak.
02:11If you haven't done it, give it a try.
02:14You're going to send me thank you letters.
02:19One of the ultimate butter hacks is browning your butter.
02:22Butter is made of two things.
02:23Butter fat, butter solids.
02:25Brown those butter solids.
02:27It will take everything to the next level.
02:29I'm going to start out on kind of a medium heat,
02:31and I'm going to add my butter to the pot.
02:34Brown butter is one of those things that adds a ton of complexity
02:36to a lot of different dishes.
02:38If you put brown butter in cookies or cakes,
02:40you're going to have a deeper kind of roasty flavor, more richness.
02:44This is one of those things that you can actually prep ahead.
02:46You can put it in the fridge or the freezer.
02:48It lasts a long time.
02:50Once my butter melts, I'm just going to put the whisk in there on medium heat.
02:54What happens when you're melting the butter is the solids start to sink down to the bottom,
02:58and using that whisk kind of keeps them suspended in the butter,
03:02so they brown more evenly, and they don't just stick to the bottom and brown on the bottom of the
03:06pan.
03:07So whisk it while it cooks.
03:09You'll see that it's starting to bubble,
03:11and what's happening now is our milk solids are separating out from our butter fat,
03:15and basically that's what's going to get brown.
03:17The milk solids in our butter are going to brown.
03:20So if you look right here, the milk solids are starting to stick to the bottom of the pot,
03:25and this is the clear yellow butter.
03:27So at this point, if I wanted ghee or clarified butter, I would stop.
03:31Those milk solids sinking to the bottom, they can stay in the pan,
03:34and that clear yellow fat on top will be your clarified butter.
03:38Brown butter can have different stages as well.
03:41We can start off with a very light brown butter to a very dark brown butter.
03:44I like mine to be kind of on the hazelnut side,
03:49and that's pretty much where I would stop right now.
03:52So you can see that our butter is nice and toasty.
03:55The milk solids have gone nice and brown.
03:58This is what our brown butter looks like outside of the pot.
04:00The butter has a nice nutty color,
04:02and then some of the solids on the bottom have gotten nice and roasty and toasty.
04:06I use it in sauces, baked goods, add so much dimension to your food.
04:12This will definitely bump up your cooking game.
04:14One of the amazing uses for brown butter is a magic shell for your ice cream cone.
04:19So that brown butter is gonna harden instantly and make a really nice shell for our ice cream.
04:27Look at that, that's delicious. Let me get in there.
04:33It's a nice, smooth, nutty, buttery shell.
04:37That beautiful creamy vanilla ice cream complements each other.
04:40You can use this on hard ice cream at home as well.
04:43Just sprinkle it over the top.
04:45And to people who say butter on ice cream is too much.
04:48You only live once.
04:50Be too much.
04:54One of the things when I worked in restaurants that I used a lot of were compound butters.
04:58And compound butters sound crazy and difficult,
05:00but basically it's just a butter with flavoring in it.
05:04With a compound butter, you want to start out with softened butter.
05:06What's cool about compound butters is that you can go wild.
05:11It could be sweet.
05:12It could be savory.
05:13A lot of times chefs will use herbs or capers or anchovies.
05:17I have a mixture of garlic, sesame seeds, and Korean chili flakes.
05:21I have a little bit of paprika and some honey.
05:25And we're just gonna mix this together into a nice, even color so that everything's distributed through the butter.
05:32I could use it at this stage.
05:34It's warm.
05:35It is spreadable.
05:36So I'm gonna take this and I'm gonna slather it onto my corn.
05:40The hot honey butter is gonna be a sweet and spicy compliment to that delicious ear of corn.
05:47With compound butters, you could do whatever you imagine.
05:52Have fun with it.
05:53If there's a flavor you like, throw it into some warm butter.
05:56See how it comes out.
05:57I have a lot of this butter leftover.
05:59This is how I like to store it.
06:01So I'm gonna take a piece of parchment paper.
06:03And I use parchment paper in my house.
06:04If you don't have it, you can use plastic wrap.
06:06And I'm gonna take my butter and I'm gonna put a mound of it.
06:10Kind of just a little off-center to the front of my paper.
06:14And this is something that I was taught in culinary school years ago.
06:18You take this.
06:20Now you fold it over the top.
06:23I'm gonna hold the bottom piece of parchment.
06:26Use the edge of the tray.
06:28Give this a little push.
06:30And it forms into a cylinder.
06:32And then I'm gonna roll it up.
06:34And then twist my edges opposite directions.
06:39You can put this in the fridge or the freezer.
06:42And you can take a slice off anytime you need it.
06:44My compound butter is cold and firm.
06:47I'm just gonna cut off the end.
06:48And then I take slices.
06:53Unwrap it.
06:54It will last months in the fridge and even longer in the freezer.
06:58Delicious.
06:59Comes in handy in a pinch too.
07:04One of the ways I use butter in the kitchen is to actually thicken sauces.
07:07Thanksgiving, your gravy is too thin.
07:09Using a little softened butter and flour in a pinch, it's a great way to thicken your sauces.
07:14So I have a little bit of gravy here.
07:16And it's super liquidy.
07:17So I want to thicken that up.
07:19And what I'm gonna use is what the French call a beurre mani.
07:22Which is basically just equal parts butter.
07:27And we're gonna add flour and make kind of like a paste.
07:30Beurre mani just basically means kneaded butter.
07:33Not only does this help thicken our sauces.
07:35It's also gonna add some of that really nice buttery richness.
07:39I'm gonna take some of my beurre mani and I'm gonna whisk it into my gravy.
07:44Look at this gravy now.
07:46It's gone from like liquidy to nice and smooth and creamy.
07:50Depending on your preference, you can add more or less of the beurre mani.
07:54Test it on the back of a spoon.
07:55If it leaves a line and that line doesn't close up, you know that it's thick enough.
08:00Beurre mani can be used for gravies, soups, any sauce that you have that needs to be tightened up a
08:05little.
08:05It's a super versatile thing to have in your kitchen arsenal.
08:09If I give you one tip, it's gonna be this.
08:12Use butter in your sauces.
08:14I have a little bit of vodka sauce here and some pasta.
08:17And this sauce is perfectly good the way it is.
08:20But if I ever want to get it to that next level, what I would do is add a couple
08:25of knobs of butter.
08:26Maybe like three knobs of butter.
08:27And I'm just gonna stir this into my sauce.
08:29It's gonna round out my sauce if it has any sharp flavors like maybe the tomatoes are a little too
08:34acidic.
08:35This is something we do in restaurants all the time with sauces for meat, fish, pasta.
08:40There's always a pat of butter somewhere.
08:43See how the sauce sticks to our pasta really nice?
08:45It's glossy, it's delicious.
08:50A little bit of parm on top.
08:52And we're good to go.
08:54So the pasta gets super glossy, super delicious.
08:58And this is how we finish our sauces in restaurants.
09:01A little bit of butter goes a long way.
09:08If you want butter that spreads really easily and tastes great, I like to use whipped butter.
09:13Whipped butter is one of these things that has more air in it so it melts a little bit quicker.
09:18I got a big stack of flapjacks here.
09:20Don't be shy with the butter because butter makes your pancakes better.
09:24And I know that seems ridiculous, but be ridiculous with your whipped butter.
09:28And this is why I love whipped butter.
09:30It's light, it's fluffy, it's airy.
09:32Look at the meltiness on that.
09:34Syrup, butter.
09:36Who does not want to eat these pancakes now?
09:39Use whipped butter on your breakfast foods.
09:41Use it for pretty much everything.
09:42You're never gonna be sorry.
09:47Everyone's been there.
09:48They need softened butter for a recipe.
09:50And all they have is hard butter out of the fridge.
09:53This is my favorite hack.
09:54This is something I do all the time.
09:56So what I do with the butter is I will unwrap it, put it onto a plate, put it into
10:01a microwave.
10:02Go about five to 10 seconds at a time on high power.
10:05The key here is to go small bursts, not go the whole 20, 30 seconds at a time.
10:11If you do that, you're gonna have a puddle of melted butter.
10:13So that was about 20 seconds.
10:16Look at it.
10:17Pliable, soft, ready to make those cookies.
10:2120 seconds.
10:22Another trick for softening butter quickly is the warm or hot glass trick.
10:26I have my stick of butter.
10:28I peel it, put it on a plate.
10:32I have a glass of hot water here.
10:35I'm gonna dump the water out.
10:36Just shake, shake, shake.
10:37And then put it on top.
10:41Having the glass hot creates a nice warm atmosphere for a butter to soften and not melt.
10:48In about 10, maybe 15 minutes, you'll have really nice softened butter.
10:53All right.
10:53It's been about 10 minutes.
10:54Let's take the glass off.
10:57Oh yeah.
10:57Look, not hard.
10:59Nice and soft and pliable.
11:01Ready for baking.
11:04Next butter softening hack is using a box grater.
11:06Get a box grater with large holes.
11:09My butter is nice and cold.
11:11It can be frozen.
11:12If you have frozen butter, this works for that as well.
11:15Peel your butter.
11:16The way that I like to grate is on the side.
11:18I don't really stand it up.
11:20Push your butter through.
11:22You're creating a lot of surface area on the butter, making it get soft really quickly.
11:28Whenever you have to cut butter into flour, you're making biscuits or you're making pie dough.
11:33This is a perfect thing for that too.
11:36So instead of cutting in little bits of butter, grate it.
11:39Your little bits of butter are there already.
11:41Our final butter softening hack is pounding it thin.
11:44More surface area means warmer faster.
11:48I have two sheets of parchment paper.
11:50This is a really great method for getting your butter room temperature.
11:54For also, though, pounding your butter into a slab.
11:57You'll see pastry chefs do this all the time because sometimes when they're making something like a croissant or a
12:02puff pastry, they need slabs of butter.
12:04So the butter is in between our parchment and basically what you do is you get a rolling pin and
12:09you're just going to hit it.
12:15There you go.
12:18Softens it super quickly.
12:20Makes it really pliable.
12:22Ready to go.
12:22One more hack that I like to use is the wrapper of my butter.
12:26Butter wrappers always have a little residual butter on the outside.
12:29Don't throw them away.
12:30Save them.
12:31Use that butter and grease the inside of your pan or muffin tin.
12:38Don't throw it away.
12:39It has butter on it.
12:40Use it all.
12:45For sandwiches, I like to butter my bread.
12:47It's not so common in the States.
12:48Normally we use mayonnaise for this, but sometimes mayonnaise can actually make your sandwich a little soggy.
12:54The butter is a little rain jacket for our bread.
12:59It stops our sandwich from getting soggy.
13:01The French go ham on bear.
13:03That's a ham sandwich butter on it on a baguette.
13:05In the UK, like this, it's a tea sandwich.
13:08Then we take this, put it on top, give it a little squishy.
13:11Nothing worse than a soggy sandwich.
13:13So put a little butter on there next time.
13:15It's just going to make them better.
13:17Butter makes everything better.
13:18If you ever want to have a fun way of presenting butter at your table, if you have guests over,
13:23some restaurants will take the butter and pipe it into rosettes or little roses.
13:27All you really got to do is get some butter, have it really soft, and you press it down into
13:34your mold,
13:34pushing it in onto the sides and down into the design.
13:39And then you can just swipe it off the top.
13:41This works really well for Thanksgiving, dinner parties.
13:44Look how easy they pop out.
13:46These silicone molds are amazing.
13:48Take a second to clean up any rough edges.
13:51A little bit of coarse salt.
13:53And you have a beautiful butter rosette with almost no effort.
13:57These hacks save you time, money, energy, stress.
14:00Give them a try and I promise you, you'll be a better cook for it.
14:05If you have any kitchen tips or tricks, please put them in the comments.
14:08I always like to read what you guys have to say.
14:10I always like to read what you guys have to say.
14:10Back in my Cl TOMBS.
14:10I feel like...
14:11Right there, let's go again.
14:11Are going to ruin the brand?
14:11Now there's the slider on the spot.
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