Clarified Butter French Supermarket Style

I'm fascinated by supermarkets (I know you're not surprised) and always make them one of my first stops when I land in a new place.  I feel I can really get a bead on a place by wandering a market's aisles, particularly the ones where the convenience foods are stocked.  Naturally, in France, convenience foods include cassoulet (in a tin or jar), foie gras, microwavable dinners from famous chefs (if you can't get into le Grand Vefour, maybe one of Guy Martin's dishes will make you feel better), rolled-out ready-to-go all-butter pastry and this beurre de cuisson, or cooking butter.

The label says it doesn't blacken and it won't, because what it really is is clarified butter, butter with the milk solids (the stuff that burns) removed.  (Ghee, which is used in Indian cooking, is like clarified butter but, because more or all of the water has been cooked away, it can be kept at room temperature.)  Clarified butter is a chef's staple, an ingredient that helps keep the delicacy and finesse of sauted foods intact.  Now that I've found this butter, I've added it to my ritual carry-homes along with the seawood and salted butters of Jean-Yves Bordier.

Of course, you can make beurre de cuisson at home.  Start with unsalted butter cut into small pieces (and start with at lfew sticks - it doesn't pay to put in the effort for a couple of  spoonfuls).  Put the butter in a saucepan over low heat and gently, gently melt it.  Continue to cook the butter until there's foam on top, a milky white layer on the bottom and, in between, the clear butter you're after.  (How long you need to cook the butter will depend on how much butter you've got - be patient, it can take about 30 minutes.)  Remove the pan from the heat and carefully spoon off the foamy top layer and discard.  Spoon the clarified layer into a clean container and keep it well covered in the fridge; toss away the solids that remain in the pan.

It's not hard to clarify butter, but it is just fussy enough to give you another reason to envy the French and their markets.

Comments

[Julie]

I do that as well - I bring along a camera for unique citings - such as the AISLE dedicated to an assortment of differing brands of instant coffee found in a supermarket in Santiago de Chile (and this rings true even in the nicest of hotels they serve instant coffee on a silver tray) - not too far from an entire encasement of empanadas. If you are visiting and you dont have the chance to visit a native's home - I think its the next best thing - an endlessly interesting visit for me - no matter what city.

[Nitasha]

This is a revelation!!
I'm Indian and I tried to substitute clarified butter with ghee in a recent phyllo pasting episode, and it just wasn't the same (maybe it's just the difference in milk?).
So happy to know that such a thing exists - must try to sniff it out in Boston - thanks.

[brilynn]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes to wander around supermarkets... when I was in Australia I used to love going to the grocery store in each new city I visited to find new things but also products that were kind of like home, but just a little different.

[ParisBreakfasts]

I LOVE French super marches too. I could spend ENTIRE days inside-I tried last trip. To hell with all the other Parisian sites,shops, musees etc. I was particularly fascinated by the convenience foods too! Though I only dared to try them once... But I was amazed at the range! OH MY
Any recommendations would be welcome for next time besides butter...

[Mike at Mel's Dner]

You say to use unsalted butter. I was a big unsalted butter fan for a long time UNTLL I gazed at the ingredients. Every unsalted butter I saw had "Natural Flavor" as an ingredient, the salted one's did not. If my choice is between these two, one with "Natural Flavor" added and one with salt, which one should I use?

Mike

[Dorie]

Breadchick - I'm glad you're a supermarket-goer too. No matter what city I'm in, I'm never disappointed by a supermarket visit.

Dr. Behavior - thanks for the link to Straus Family Creamery. I know their butter and think it's tops.

Stephane - you're absolutely right. You can heat the butter until it separates, then run it thru a chinois. You can also just use a regular strainer lined with dampened cheesecloth. Merci!

Wendy - my understanding is that ghee has more, if not all of the water removed from it.

[Wendy]

Is there any difference between ghee and clarified butter at all?

[stephane]

A precision on clarified butter. You can dissolve it in poëlle (saute pan) and as soon as you obtain a colouring on the edge, to pass it through a Chinois and you have your clarified butter.

[DrBehavior]

Those of us who live in Northern California happen to be extremely fortunate for a variety of reasons not least of which is our access to some of the finest food products in the world. One of those products just happens to be butter. Very close to where I live there is a lovely family who started a dairy farm 65 years ago. The attention that they pay to detail - from their land inuring into a sustainable trust, to all their products being organic, to their cows having a 'social life', etc., is amazing to say the least. One of the products that they're most proud of, and rightly so, is their butter. It's still churned in the old fashioned way, made in small batches, has no additives, and is higher in butter fat than any arbitrary government dictum could legislate. I'm enclosing a link to their site because the story of this family, their product, and their dedication to providing their customers with the very finest of products is not only worth reading about but also enviable. I hope you and your readers enjoy it.
By the way, have a safe trip home and don't schlep any more than you need to :)

http://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/

[breadchick]

I do that too! Make the supermarket on of my first stops in a new place, that is. I love to wander down the aisles and see the different brands for things I have back home and discover new things as well (dill pickle Lays from Canada for example).

I think this may be one of the things that goes on my carry home list when I'm in Paris next.