Category: Grub Garage
IMAGE by Mark R. Vogel
Epicure1@optonline.net
The other day I was in line in a supermarket's seafood department
endeavoring to buy shrimp, when the guy after me cut in line and ordered
king crab legs.
As the clerk was bagging the legs the guy asked him "How do I make the
butter for these?" I'm sure he was referring to the classic drawn butter
commonly
served with shellfish. The clerk retorted: "Just melt the butter." And with
that tidbit of erroneous information he was on his way and I proceeded to
purchase
my shrimp. Had his adherence to proper line etiquette been more
commendable, I would have intervened and informed him of the proper method
of preparing
the butter for his Alaskan delicacy.
Drawn butter is clarified butter. But before we can define clarified
butter, we must first understand regular butter. Butter is the semisolid
material that
results from churning cream. In the US it must be at least 80% milk fat.
The remaining 20% is water and milk solids, (proteins and salts). It may be
salted
or unsalted. The salt, which acts as a preservative, allows for salted
butter to last up to a month in your fridge as opposed to two weeks for
unsalted
butter.
Clarified butter is unsalted butter that has been heated to the point that
its water evaporates and the milk solids separate out. The resulting golden
fluid
is the clarified butter, i.e., pure butter fat. One pound of butter will
yield about 12 ounces of clarified butter. To clarify your butter, heat it on
low. Some of the proteins will coagulate and produce a foam on the surface
which must be skimmed off. Continue to cook until the butter becomes clear and
the remaining milk solids congregate on the bottom. Then either ladle or
pour out the butter being careful not to include the milk solids. If you "just
melt the butter" and fail to remove the milk solids, you will have just
that: melted butter, not drawn or clarified butter.
Clarified butter is often preferred to regular butter for sautéing because
it has a higher smoke point. This means it can be heated to a higher
temperature
than regular butter before burning. Those pesky milk solids are miniature
kamikaze pilots, diving right to the bottom of your pan and burning themselves
up. Without them, clarified butter will store longer as well. But they are
not totally evil. They also provide flavor and thus, clarified butter is not
as tasty as regular butter.
But this is only one chapter in the butter story. Butter can do so much
more than lubricate your crustaceans. Butter is often used to make roux, a
cooked
mixture of equal parts butter and flour. Roux is used to thicken sauces and
soups. No cook worth his salt, (pardon the pun), could make gumbo without roux.
(Ok yes, you can use okra but classic gumbo always contains roux). In
classic French cuisine, roux was the thickener of choice for a multitude of
sauces.
Modern sauces are congealed via evaporation from extended heating or by
adding in a starch-based thickener such as arrowroot or cornstarch. But if you
wish to laugh in the face of fat, favor a more hearty sauce, or simply wish
to honor tradition, roux is the way to go.
A delicious preparation employing butter is compound butter. This is simply
butter that has been combined with herbs, garlic, shallots, or other
flavorings.
Simply take a stick or two of butter and allow it to soften to room
temperature. Chop up whatever combination of herbs suits your taste, such
as rosemary,
thyme, and parsley for example. Then mix them into the butter. Take a sheet
of plastic wrap and spoon out the butter into a rough shaped log. Then roll
the plastic around it. Finally, hold each end of the plastic and twist in
opposite directions until the plastic tightens around the butter and forces it
into a neat cylindrical shape. Refrigerate it and then slice it to top off
your finished steak, pork, lamb, fowl, or fish. You'll never get that garnish
with your dinner on the cardiac ward of your local hospital.
And where would fettuccine Alfredo be without butter? An Alfredo sauce is
basically a combination of butter, cream and Parmesan cheese. How much of each?
I was afraid you'd ask. I did a search on the Internet and got tired of
counting all the permutations. I'd go with four oz., (one stick) of butter, two
cups heavy cream, and two cups of Parmesan cheese. Melt the butter in the
cream and bring it to a simmer. Incorporate the cheese and season with salt and
pepper. Cook your pasta until it is just a minute or two from being done
and then finish it in the sauce.
About the Author:
Mark R. Vogel
received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University and
his culinary arts degree from the Institute of Culinary Education, both in New
York City. Although he still practices psychology, his deepest passion
remains cooking at an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant in NJ and writing
about food
and wine. His column "Food For Thought" is published in a number of NY, NJ
and PA newspapers and food related websites.