Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Reflections on brown butter


Fat Guy

Recommended Posts

I made lamb shoulder chops for dinner tonight and was reminded of another place in which brown butter plays a key role.

In (very) short tenures at Ducasse and Jean George as well as Seeger's in Atlanta, I had the opportunity to watch and learn a method of cooking meat that I think is really fantastic.

A well seasoned piece of meat, say a ribeye (but a lamb shoulder chop works great too) is seared in grapeseed oil (or another high temp oil) in a heavy pan, preferably copper or cast iron. After you get color on one side, turn the meat and take the pan off the heat. Add lots of butter, some thyme and a couple of cloves of garlic, crushed but not too much and still in the paper. Bring the pan back to the heat and tilt it. With a spoon, baste the meat. The butter should be somewhere between foaming and brown. In fact it should be in both states depending on where it is in the pan. The trick is to keep the butter from burning and the way to achieve that is by carefully monitoring the heat and keeping the fat moving. If it starts to burn, get the pan off the heat, pour off the fat and add new.

The brown butter is infusing with garlic and thyme and fond. The meat is bathed in the infusion. There are other things happening that I have some theories on but that Mr. McGee would be much more qualified to address.

In this month's New Yorker, Bill Buford mentions that Gordan Ramsay's cooks use this method also. I think it's a pretty widespread practice. At its heart is the careful handling of browned butter.

You shouldn't eat grouse and woodcock, venison, a quail and dove pate, abalone and oysters, caviar, calf sweetbreads, kidneys, liver, and ducks all during the same week with several cases of wine. That's a health tip.

Jim Harrison from "Off to the Side"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A well seasoned piece of meat, say a ribeye (but a lamb shoulder chop works great too) is seared in grapeseed oil (or another high temp oil) in a heavy pan, preferably copper or cast iron.  After you get color on one side, turn the meat and take the pan off the heat.  Add lots of butter, some thyme and a couple of cloves of garlic, crushed but not too much and still in the paper.  Bring the pan back to the heat and tilt it.  With a spoon, baste the meat.  The butter should be somewhere between foaming and brown.  In fact it should be in both states depending on where it is in the pan.  The trick is to keep the butter from burning and the way to achieve that is by carefully monitoring the heat and keeping the fat moving.  If it starts to burn, get the pan off the heat, pour off the fat and add new.

a.k.a. arrozé

also, financiers! only with browned butter, please.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A well seasoned piece of meat, say a ribeye (but a lamb shoulder chop works great too) is seared in grapeseed oil (or another high temp oil) in a heavy pan, preferably copper or cast iron.  After you get color on one side, turn the meat and take the pan off the heat.  Add lots of butter, some thyme and a couple of cloves of garlic, crushed but not too much and still in the paper.  Bring the pan back to the heat and tilt it.  With a spoon, baste the meat.  The butter should be somewhere between foaming and brown.  In fact it should be in both states depending on where it is in the pan.  The trick is to keep the butter from burning and the way to achieve that is by carefully monitoring the heat and keeping the fat moving.  If it starts to burn, get the pan off the heat, pour off the fat and add new.

a.k.a. arrozé

also, financiers! only with browned butter, please.

I've heard it called baise? Something like that. I assumed it meant that the butter is kissing the meat. . . ?

You shouldn't eat grouse and woodcock, venison, a quail and dove pate, abalone and oysters, caviar, calf sweetbreads, kidneys, liver, and ducks all during the same week with several cases of wine. That's a health tip.

Jim Harrison from "Off to the Side"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...