How to make clarified butter—for seafood, sauces and sautéing

Clarified butter is a wonderful item to keep on hand in your fridge to use for sautéing, making sauces, or dipping seafood into. By taking out the milk solids in the butter, this allows the butter to be cooked at a higher temperature preventing the butter from burning too quickly.1 pound (or 4 sticks) of butter.

1. Place butter into a heavy sauce pot.
2. Turn the heat on low and slowly melt the butter. Melting the butter on low heat will allow the milk solids to separate from the fat, leaving a white foam to settle on the top of the butter. 
3. Use a slotted spoon to skim the foamy milk solids off the top of the butter.
4. Use a ladle to remove the clear yellow butterfat out of the sauce pot, leaving the milky water that collected in the bottom of the pot to discard.
5. Keep the pure butter fat or clarified butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

This article was originally published in the February 2023 issue of 225 magazine.