Clarified butter???
 

I'm doing some crab legs tonight and I've heard a bunch of different stories on how to prepare the butter...so what's the scoop?

I don't do anything terribly fancy. Just melt the butter over low heat, and either skim the impurities off the top with a spoon, or just pour the junk off... A little garlic and whatever other spice suits your fancy, and you are set.

Micah

That's what I do, but now I have people telling me it must be sodium free butter. Any truth to that?

you want regular butter
nothing added, no cooking butter, no margerine
just regular butter

then you melt it, without it getting hot
and you should have impurities at the bottom of the pan ( some on top, but those aren't the one's we're after ( skim em anyway )
the things at the bottom are the non fat things, water, and so forth...

the point is that you get rid of all the impurities that case the butter to burn while cooking , you raise the butters ability to deal with heat...

try baking a steak with it and you'll know the score...

So you melt it at low heat, then skim the top.....then you pour what's left off taking care to leave the solids in the bottom behind.....

Is that right?

Aiight.


i don't hurt to make a bit more then you need
it doesn't spoil easely , i keep mine out of the fridge since i cook daily for myself...

but even if you don't , butter keeps long time, no worries
the more you make , the less waste, no good messing around with 1/4 pound butter to clear it ...

Is there a reason I should not use the un-saleted butter my wife bought?

Sweet (unsalted) butter works great - go for it.

salt attracts water.. water is an impurity

OK, when it cools is it a solid or a liquid(just curious).

solid, looks just like any other butter , just a bit less dark...

Thanks, thought I was screwed when I looked at what my wife bought........."unsalted margerine":(

But I found one remaining stick of real butter that had been in the butter dish on the counter.

technically , it shouldn't matter that much
the salt shoud just stay at the bottom where you can leave it when you seperate the clear stuff...you would just have more wast product then if you were to use regular butter

I ALWAYS use Unsalted Butter.

If you want salt you can always add some.

this won't happen often , so watch me do it

+1

Ditto.

Professional chefs use only unsalted butter.

So everything went great until I spilled half of it:(

Oh well, I have enough for tonight and that's good enough:D

lol

quite common for a 1st time attempt

works in the microwave too

It only takes maybe 20 seconds on 7/10ths, at least in my microwave

What everybody said, except you can't have too much garlic if it's fresh pressed.

I know you own a garlic press, right?